The University Libraries and the Office of Research established the Open Publishing Support Fund in October 2008 in response to the request of a group of life sciences faculty that UT provide incentives for faculty to publish in open access journals. (The Faculty Senate endorsed the Tempe Principles for Emerging Systems of Scholarly Publishing in 2003 and passed a resolution in May 2006 endorsing UT Knoxville administrative incentives to encourage faculty publication in alternative scholarly outlets.)
Open access publishing provides articles in digital format on the Internet at no charge to viewers. Like traditional journal publications, open access publications are peer reviewed, and the article processing charges assessed for open access publications are generally less than those charged by comparable printed journals. Initially, faculty, postdoctoral associate, or currently enrolled graduate students could apply for up to $3,000 to defray the article processing costs. The program was extended in 2011.