The purpose of this presentation is to give you an overview of the open access landscape.
Many journals are published on a subscription basis, i.e. the full text is accessible only to people who are affiliated to a subscribing institution or who pay to download a copy. Open access means that anybody, anywhere with an internet connection is able to read and download the publication, without having to log in or pay.
Some of the benefits of open access Enhances the visibility and impact of research Can increase the number of citations for the work Can create new opportunities for collaboration and the exchange of scholarly ideas Provides the public with access to publicly-funded research outputs A source of opportunities for innovation in wider society by e.g. individuals and business Reduces the obstacles to knowledge of institutional affiliation or economic status
University of Exeter Open Access Research and Research Data Management Policy
ORE
HEFCE Policy for open access in Research Excellence Framework 2021
It’s therefore important to keep this version, which is usually supplied by the publisher, sometimes only to the lead or corresponding author
Here are some examples of what the various versions of a paper look like as they go through the publishing process.
An institutional repository (IR) is an online archive for collecting, preserving, and disseminating digital copies of the intellectual output of an institution, particularly a research institution. Publications deposited in ORE are very discoverable by the world at large! They commonly appear in the top three search results in search engines. Once deposited, each publication in ORE is assigned a ‘handle’; this is a permanent URL, and can be used as a persistent online identifier to point to the work in citations etc.
ORE
You can find easy-to-follow guides on various aspects of using Symplectic here: http://as.exeter.ac.uk/it/systems/symplectic/howtousesymplectic/ They are also in the help section of Symplectic
The main outliers (in REF 2014) to the equivalence I’ve made between panels and disciplines are Geography and ‘Sports-Related Studies’ (main panel C) which at Exeter are in a STEM college (CLES).
Many journals permit deposit of the accepted version to ORE. The publisher may require than an embargo is applied (period of time following publication before which article can be made available as open access). Whilst an article is under embargo, the item record is discoverable but the full text article itself can’t be viewed or downloaded. Deposit upon acceptance. Open Research will apply any embargo required. Once the embargo period has passed, the embargo will lift automatically and the article becomes freely available as open access in the repository. Check embargo period at point of uploading accepted version in Symplectic. Check individual journal policies: SHERPA/RoMEO Publisher imposed embargoes can conflict with funder requirements, in this situation the author may need to pay for open access.
Authors can pay for open access when publishing in two types of journals: fully open access (OA) or hybrid journals. Full OA journal: all articles are published as OA on publisher website. APCs are charged for all articles, usually must pay APC to publish. Hybrid journals: author can choose to pay an APC - publisher makes the article freely available as open access on the publisher website. If author chooses not to pay an APC, article will be published on a subscription basis (behind a paywall and accessible to people that are able to log in using their affiliation with an institution that buys a subscription to the journal or who pay to download a copy). If APC is not paid, can usually still make article available as open access by depositing accepted version to ORE. Both of these – a licence is usually applied guiding reuse, such as one of the Creative Commons Attribution Licences e.g. CC-BY (most liberal, required by some funders)
APC prices vary considerably. Funds available to pay open access APCs are finite and available on a first come first served basis. Hybrid journals are on average more costly than fully open access ones. From our APC data first six months of 2016/17: • Average APC £2,071 + VAT • APCs ranged from £251 - £4,130 (VAT is charged for open access APCs) Where does the money to pay for open access come from? The funder may pay for open access publication.
Funder requirements for open access publishing vary. Authors may have the option to comply by depositing to a repository, or by paying for open access 1. Check terms & conditions of research grant for open access obligations 2. Check funder open access policy (if applicable) • What types of publication are covered by funder open access policy? • Can author comply through by depositing to a repository? • Is there a maximum allowed embargo? • What is the arrangement for paying for open access? • What is required if an open access APC is paid e.g. CC-BY licence, deposit to PubMed Central
Authors may be able to comply with RCUK policy by depositing accepted version to ORE (MRC, BBSRC also need to deposit via Europe PubMed Central Plus) Publishers often impose an embargo on article in ORE. RCUK allow embargo of not longer than 6 months (STEM) or 12 months (HASS) If the publisher imposed embargo exceeds maximum allowed by, may need to pay for Open Access.
The examples here show two different journals
1. Nature Physics allows deposit to institutional repository of accepted version of article with 6 months embargo (SHERPA/RoMEO). EPSRC max allowed embargo is 6 months. Publishing EPSRC funded research in this journal, comply by depositing to ORE. 2. Biology Letters allows deposit of accepted version to repository with 12 months embargo (SHERPA/RoMEO). BBSRC max allowed embargo 6 months. Journal embargo is too long. Publishing BBSRC funded research in this journal, consider paying for open access in order to comply. We administer the RCUK open access block grant. This is available to pay open access publication fees for RCUK funded research.
Submit an open access funding request upon acceptance via the link on the website, or email to us. We’ll provide billing details for completion of the publisher APC payment forms. OA admin process can take some time to complete, publisher often won’t make article OA until payment has been received. Authors should apply to us upon acceptance so that we can make sure OA admin process is completed ready for article to be made OA immediately upon publication, so that it is not posted online behind a subscription log in / paywall for any period of time.
RCUK require CC-BY licence is applied if they pay for Gold open access.
We also administer the Charity Open Access Fund (COAF), for the payment of OA publication fees for research funded by any of the 6 COAF partner charities, including the Wellcome Trust. Apply to us for open access funding upon acceptance. If an APC is paid, article must be published with CC-BY licence. Article must also be deposited to PubMed Central (PMC). IF APC is paid, publisher must deposit final full text upon publication. If there is no compliant paid open access option, the author can self-archive the accepted version via Europe PubMed Central Plus - no longer than a six months embargo. (Also deposit to ORE to comply with University policy and HEFCE, for the REF) Further information: Wellcome Trust website **Wellcome Trust also require Open Access to scholarly monographs & book chapters The mechanism for paying for these is different, check the Wellcome Trust website for details. Check compliance of the journal with Wellcome Trust policy using SHERPA/FACT
Other funders also have open access policies or guidelines. Requirements vary by funder – check the policy to make sure most accurate / up to date information. Not all funders have OA requirements or policies. If you cannot find details of funder open access requirements, contact them to check. ERC open access overview ERC open access guidelines Open Access in FP7 Open Access in Horizon 2020 Leverhulme Trust Open Access publishing statement NIHR open access policy
Some institutional funding has been allocated to support payment of open access APCs for Exeter researchers. This funding sits alongside open access block grants from research funders, for use where the funder of research cannot pay. There will be assessment of quality of the research output, as part of criteria for accessing Institutional Funds Authors wanting to access institutional financial support for OA publication are encouraged to consult Directors of Research and Academic Leads before submitting papers to publishers. Author submit an OA funding request to us with DoR approval via email. Intention is for the lead author to be based at Exeter, but we consider requests where this is not the case e.g. if lead author has no access to OA funding. Contact openaccess@exeter.ac.uk for institutional APC fund criteria, to submit a funding request, or for further information.
In addition to charging subscriptions and open access fees, some publishers also charge other publication charges such as page charges, publication fees (not open access), colour and figure charges. These charges originated when the main mechanism for information dissemination was in print. They have less relevance in a digital environment (when there is no additional cost for extra pages, figures or colour) Some publishers offer the option to choose colour “online only� for free. We suggest authors question the rationale behind these charges with the publisher, to see if they can be waived. If they must be paid, check the T&Cs of the research grant, to see if publication fees are eligible costs. Publication charges can be paid from the RCUK block grant that we administer (they are not eligible to be charged to RCUK research grants since 2013) -submit a publication charges funding request to us.
All articles should be deposited via Symplectic to ORE. There are no fees associated with this. The article will be made freely available as open access in the repository, in accordance with publisher requirements (sometimes following an embargo period). The article will be discoverable in the repository, it will have a persistent URL (handle) and it will appear in search engine results. 1. Publish in a journal that doesn’t charge an APC. The library signed a JISC agreement with Springer whereby there is no charge to authors to publish in eligible Springer hybrid journals as the cost of doing so is covered by the annual fee paid by Library (Springer Compact) 2. Information about this (and other APC discounts) available to University of Exeter authors are online: Publisher APC Discounts 3. Approach research funder to ask if they will pay 4. Ask the publisher to waive the fee
Open Access should be considered at all stages of the publication process.
If you have questions, please get in touch!