Scholarly Communication

Virginia Tech was one of the earliest players in the library publishing arena. In 1989 the Scholarly Communication Project was established in the libraries as a place to experiment with the technology to produce online scholarship in new and developing formats. Since then the libraries have continued to embrace the increasingly diverse products of research and scholarship that are more than just “paper online,” including e-journals, interactive “books,” open educational resources, and innovative online digital projects. All collaborations result in sustainable publications that are included in our preservation strategy with the MetaArchive Cooperative.

Virginia Tech Publishing is the scholarly publishing imprint in the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. We are committed to increasing the visibility, reach, and impact of research produced at Virginia Tech. We publish scholarly and educational materials in multiple formats for wide dissemination and permanent preservation. For more information, please contact Corinne Guimont (Associate Director, Publishing and Digital Scholarship): gcorinne@vt.edu or publishing@vt.edu.

The open access (OA) subvention fund in the Virginia Tech Libraries subsidizes article processing fees for scholarly peer-reviewed articles accepted for publication in open access. OA fees are often also reduced through discounts offered by University Libraries' memberships and subscriptions. Interested authors should begin by reviewing the VT OASF Guidelines and then completing the Open Access Subvention Fund request form. For more information contact Julie Griffin, senior associate dean, at gjulie@vt.edu.

Open Education Initiative Faculty Grants encourage the use of existing and creation of new openly licensed information resources to support student learning. Virginia Tech faculty are invited to apply for competitive grants up to $3,000. Additional literature on open educational resources and example projects are available in the Open Education Lib Guide. For complete information on the Open Education Initiative Grants, please download the Grants Information document. To apply visit the online application. For more information contact Anita Walz (Open Education, Copyright & Scholarly Communication Librarian): arwalz@vt.edu.

Virginia Tech was one of 20 participating universities in the Towards an Open Monograph Ecosystem (TOME) initiative, which was a five-year pilot program from 2018-2023 by the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) to support the publication of open access, digital monographs. TOME was designed to advance the wide dissemination of long-form, peer-reviewed scholarship by humanities and humanistic social sciences faculty members. Learn More

Virginia Tech is continuing this initiative with three awards per fiscal year. The baseline amount of each grant is $15,000 to support the publication of an open access, digital monograph of 90,000 words or less. For each award, the library, the provost’s office, and the awardee’s college will contribute $5,000. Awardees must secure funding from their respective college. Additional funding may be available for works of greater lengths or complexity.

Note: To be considered for a TOME at Virginia Tech grant, faculty members must have a peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication by one of the original participating presses or a press that has agreed to publish open access.

See also the Provost's book publishing subvention information. For more information contact Corinne Guimont (Associate Director, Publishing and Digital Scholarship): gcorinne@vt.edu.

The VT Commission on Research’s Open Access Policy Working Group drafted a policy, that says faculty should deposit their final manuscript of a scholarly article in the university repository, VTechWorks.  This will maximize the dissemination of research and benefit authors and the university. For more information on the Open Access Policy look for NLI Sessions or contact Philip Young (Institutional Repository Manager): pyoung1@vt.edu.

VTechWorks presents current research and scholarship created by Virginia Tech faculty, students, and staff. Articles and Extension publications; books including open textbooks and rare books; theses and dissertations, presentations—slides, posters, papers; technical reports, administrative documents; videos, images, and other formats, are available.

Register to add your work and contact vtechworks@vt.edu. Faculty can also make their work available in VTechWorks through the Electronic Faculty Activity Reporting System (EFARS). See usage data at VTechWorks Stats. For more information contact Gail McMillan (Director, Scholarly Communication): gailmac@vt.edu; or Philip Young (Institutional Repository Manager): pyoung1@vt.edu.

Open Access at Virginia Tech honors the annual global Open Access Week. We host a series of lectures and workshops to raise awareness of open access and options Virginia Tech scholars have for providing the widest possible access to their research and scholarship.