KU Libraries seeks nominations for 2026 Shulenburger Award recognizing innovators in Open Scholarship
KU Libraries is accepting nominations through Sept. 18 for the 2026 David Shulenburger Award for Innovation and Advocacy in Scholarly Communication, which recognizes members of the KU community who are expanding access to research, advancing open scholarship, and transforming how knowledge is shared.
Established in 2014 with a gift from David Shulenburger, former provost and executive vice chancellor at the University of Kansas, the annual award honors KU faculty, staff, students, and academic units who advance open access and innovation in scholarly communication.
“Providing open access to scholarship, tools, data, and teaching materials contributes to advancing KU's mission and helps researchers, teachers, students, practitioners, and policy makers all over the world solve problems and improve lives,” said Josh Bolick, Head of the Shulenburger Office of Scholarly Communication & Copyright at KU Libraries. “The work we do at KU matters, and removing barriers to it increases its impact.”
Recipients are selected for outstanding contributions that support open sharing of research and drive systemic improvements in how knowledge is communicated. Up to two recipients may be selected, with award amounts ranging from $500 to $3,000. Individual recipients may also be invited to join KU’s Open Access Advisory Board.
Eligible contributions may engage with open educational resources, open-access publishing, and infrastructure stewardship, the creation of open source tools, open data sharing, public scholarship initiatives, and other efforts to broaden access to knowledge.
Last year, two KU faculty members who champion open access scholarship were selected to receive the award. Jeffrey Girard, associate professor of psychology, was honored for creating widely used open-source software and tools. Rami Zeedan, associate professor of Jewish studies, was recognized for launching an open journal and textbook.
Nominations for the Shulenburger Award, including self-nominations, must be submitted by Friday, Sept. 18. Additional information is available online or by contacting Josh Bolick, head of the Shulenburger Office of Scholarly Communication & Copyright, via email (jbolick@ku.edu).
KU and KU Libraries’ history of supporting open scholarship includes early establishment of the KU ScholarWorks digital repository for research, student theses, dissertations, and campus publications. In 2009 KU became the first public institution in the world to adopt a Faculty Open Access Policy, and in 2011 founded the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI).
KU Libraries empower a sustained program of open access advocacy and support for author’s rights, provide article publishing support, digital publishing services, and partnership in research data management and sharing. KU is a member of the Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship (HELIOS Open), Open Education Network (OEN), and Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), among others. Journals@KU, a KU Libraries open access publishing platform, hosts a growing catalog of 67 scholarly journals, including Zeedan’s “Druze Studies Journal.”
KU Libraries also manage a new $225,000 investment from the Office of the Provost for the Deans’ Open Educational Resources (OER) Grant Initiative, that aims to reduce textbook-related costs for students and supports retention by encouraging adoption of free and open educational materials in high-enrollment courses. Support for OER publishing is also provided by the libraries through the Pressbooks and Libretexts platforms, and encouraged through the Textbook Heroes initiative.