In a further indication of the increasing interest in central funding of open access publications fees, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition has published a profile of open access funds at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Calgary.

BioMed Central’s journal Breast Cancer Research features prominently in the profile:

Dr. Carrie Shemanko, Assistant Professor at the Southern Alberta Cancer Research Institute, Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary was pleased to learn that the library would be providing funds to cover the cost of publication in open-access journals.  She led a team that produced an article about how prolactin, a hormone partly responsible for breast development and function, contributes to breast cancer. The research was funded by the Alberta Cancer Foundation, the Alberta Cancer Board and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the article highlighted was published in Breast Cancer Research. Shemanko received $1,500 Canadian dollars to publish in the open-access journal, which is very visible in her field and has a high impact factor. “The article was accessed very rapidly after it became available online, by a large number of users that continues to grow. I have also granted requests from other researchers for the reagents that we used in our work, so that they can further develop related projects,” says Shemanko. “My experience increased my awareness of the need to increase funding for library resources to match the growing need of research and development.”