Why Open Access?
Open Access is an accepted route for publishing research. UK and International funders mandate Open Access for some publication types. HEFCE recently published its Open Access Policy in relation to the next REF 2020.
This information outlines the benefits to you of OA, funder policies in the UK and international policies:
- University of Warwick Open Access Policy
- UKRI funded research
- Wellcome Trust funded research
- Open Access for the REF-after-REF2021
Benefits of OA
OA benefits both the author of the research and the audience.
- Visibility - there is growing evidence that open access material is more likely to be found, read and cited than work solely published in traditional journals. This visibility can also help to attract prospective collaborators and research students
- Discoverability - open access repositories, such as the Warwick Research Archive Portal (WRAP), are optimised to allow for better indexing and visibility in popular search engines, including Google and Google Scholar
- Access - open access benefits researchers working independently, in small companies and in developing countries where the cost of subscription previously prevented access
- Compliance - most research funders now mandate open access for funded research outputs
UK OA policies
Warwick
The University of Warwick encourages all researchers to publish their research OA where feasible via either the Green or Gold routes.
The University is particularly committed to Green OA, however this does not mean that authors should be deterred from publishing in a journal of their choice.
In order to fulfill the requirement of the Warwick Open Access Policy you can deposit your journal article, conference proceedings or other publication to WRAP.
UKRI Open Access Policy
UKRI's Open Access policy applies to:
- journal articles submitted for publication on or after 1 April 2022
- monographs, book chapters and edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024
There is a strong indication that a new Open Access policy for the REF, due to be published in 2022, will mirror this new UKRI policy and will align with Plan S.
Articles
Must be Open Access immediately upon publication.
- Embargoes in WRAP will no longer be permitted
- APCs to make individual articles OA in hybrid journals will not be funded
- CC BY licence is essential
- A Data Access Statement is mandatory, even where there are no data associated with the article or the data are inaccessible
- Articles that acknowledge funding from MRC and/or BBSRC to be archived in Europe PubMed Central
Books and book chapters
Must be Open Access within 12 months of publication
- Either published as an OA item or by deposit of Author Accepted Manuscript in WRAP
- Exceptions will be permitted e.g. for problems related to obtaining permission for re-use of third party material. Detailed guidance on exceptions to be published by UKRI
- CC BY licence required
- Books may include third-party materials (such as images, photographs, diagrams or maps) which are subject to a more restrictive licence
UKRI Open Access Policy
What you need to do to make sure your work meets the UKRI Open Access requirements.
UKRI's Open Access policy published on 6th August 2021 applies to:
- journal articles and conference proceedings submitted for publication on or after 1 April 2022
- monographs, book chapters and edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024
There is a strong indication that a new Open Access policy for the REF, due to be published in 2022, will mirror this new UKRI policy and will align with Plan S.
Articles and conference proceedings
Articles and conference proceedings submitted on or after 1 April 2022 must be Open Access immediately upon publication.
In addition:
- you can no longer apply an embargo to your Author Accepted Manuscripts deposited in WRAP
- the UKRI Open Access block grant that the University receives can't be used to pay for APCs to make individual articles Open Access in hybrid journals
- you must apply a CC BY licence to your article (with CC BY ND allowed in some exceptional cases)
- you must create a Data Access Statement, even where there are no data associated with the article or the data are inaccessible
- articles that acknowledge funding from the BBSRC or MRC must be archived in Europe PubMed Central
- articles can include third-party materials (such as images, photographs or maps) that are subject to a more restrictive licence
What you need to do
- Can you benefit from our Read and Publish agreements?
- Will you be able to get funding for an APC?
- Or will you need to deposit in WRAP?
Check before you choose
Follow the workflow recommended in our ‘Check Before You Submit’ form. This will help you work out the answers to these questions.
The document is a form which you use to select answers to questions. Your responses will not be monitored and the form is for your use only.
Books, book chapters and edited collections
Books, chapters or edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024 must be Open Access or available in a repository (eg WRAP) within 12 months of publication.
In addition:
- they can be published as an Open Access item or be deposited as an Author Accepted Manuscript in WRAP
- they must use a CC-BY licence that allows the reader to search for and reuse content, subject to proper attribution
- they should include images, illustrations, tables, photographs, diagrams, maps and other supporting content where possible, but it's allowed for these third-party materials to be made available under a more restrictive licence
- exceptions will be permitted, for example if there are problems related to obtaining permission for re-use of third-party material, or if an appropriate publisher is unable to offer an Open Access option that complies with UKRI’s policy
- textbooks, scholarly editions, exhibition catalogues, trade books and fictional works are excluded
What you need to do
The UKRI practical guidance about how to meet the policy requirements is still developing, but the policy itself is unlikely to change.
- You must keep a digital copy of the Author Accepted Manuscript version of your work and deposit it in WRAP upon acceptance. Contact publications@warwick.ac.uk and we'll help you assign the 12 month embargo. This provides you with a “safety net” of free Open Access that is sufficient to meet the requirements
- Until 1 January 2024 you can include funding for Open Access books and chapters in your UKRI grant applications, but you do not have to. From 2024 onwards a central grant will be available. Page 5 of the UKRI policy states: "UKRI will provide an Open Access Block Grant to support compliance with this policy for both research articles and in-scope longform publications"
- you must apply a CC-BY licence to your work (with CC-BY-ND allowed in some exceptional cases)
- Be aware of the need to make your work openly available online when dealing with material for which you don't own the copyright. This guide to open access theses that we produced for postgraduates may be helpful. When seeking permission to use third party copyright material, state that it will be available online
- Bear in mind that some UKRI block grant funding will be available to publish Open Access online. Consider the opportunities this may offer to link to inter-active content, images and audio-visual material and address this in your dissemination plan
- Use this Open Access books toolkit which explains more about the process of publishing a book Open Access
Wellcome Trust Open Access Policy
The Wellcome Trust open access policy has been in force for research articles submitted for publication on or after the 1 January 2020. The full details of the policy can be found on the Wellcome Trust website but highlights are presented below.
These articles will now be expected to meet the following requirements:
- All Wellcome-funded research articles must be made freely available through PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC at the time of publication. No publisher embargo is now permitted under the policy
- All articles must be published under a Creative Commons attribution licence (CC-BY) even if made open access through WRAP or another repository, such as Europe PMC
- The Wellcome will no longer accept open access charges for subscription journals (or ‘hybrid OA’) or any page or colour charges not covered under the open access fee
- Where there is a significant public health benefit to preprints being shared widely and rapidly, such as a disease outbreak, these preprints must be published:
- before peer review
- on an approved platform that supports immediate publication of the complete manuscript
- under a CC-BY licence
This is a radical change from the previous policy and Wellcome have provided a set of FAQs to further support researchers in preparing for this change. More details on the list of compliant journals and platforms are being developed and will be released by Wellcome in the near future. This policy applies only to Wellcome-funded articles not to book chapters and books at the current time.
Where did it all start
In addition to this the Wellcome Trust expects research organisations to have signed or publicly committed to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), or an equivalent. See the University of Warwick’s ‘Principles for the Evaluation of Research’.
This policy is the result of six months of consultation and Wellcome have made a summary of this discussion is available publicly.
- If your article was submitted prior to 1 January 2020, please contact the Open Access team for more advice
- Please note that the Wellcome Trust also require monographs and chapters in book to be Open Access. For funds from 1/10/2014 applications should be made direct to the Wellcome Trust. If you wish to discuss this further please contact Open Access Team:
- Contact: openaccessfund at warwick dot ac dot uk
FAQs
All research articles submitted from 1 January 2021 must be freely available in PMC/Europe PMC at the time of publication and with CC-BY licence (6-month embargo no longer permitted). OA publication costs in hybrid journals will no longer be funded.
More details can be found on the Wellcome Trust website.
The new policy will apply to all research articles supported in whole or in part by Wellcome.
Yes. If you haven’t used the Wellcome Open Research publishing platform before, you may like to check if it will suit your needs as it is still a compliant option under the new policy.
Under the new policy Wellcome will pay APCs for articles published in fully open access journals (ie not subscription journals with an OA option or hybrid journals) which meet the CC-BY and PubMed Central/Europe PMC requirements.
Please use the Plan S ‘Journal Checker Tool’ which includes all the information for Wellcome funded authors on the compliance of individual journals.
Contact openaccessfund at warwick dot ac dot uk.
- You can publish in a subscription journal and be compliant with the new policy providing:
- You can self-archive your Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in Europe PMC
- Your AAM is made immediately available (no embargo) under a CC-BY licence
- Examples of already ‘green compliant’ publishers: Royal Society, Microbiology Society
It is not currently possible to give a firm answer:
Please use the Plan S ‘Journal Checker Tool’ which includes all the information for Wellcome funded authors on the compliance of individual journals.
Contact openaccessfund at warwick dot ac dot uk if you have any concerns about the compliance of your journal.
Yes, on the understanding that Wellcome’s OA policy is met (i.e. the article is freely available from Europe PMC on the final publication date with CC-BY licence), and Wellcome funds have not been used to fund the cost of the APC, either from the block award or using their funds provided on a research grant, then Wellcome would deem the article compliant
- Wellcome Trust has taken a firm stand that it wants 100% of the research it funds to be freely available at the time of publication and licensed in a way that allows it to be reused
- Publishers may choose to amend their journal policies to make them compliant with the new WT policy. Researchers who are on executive and editorial boards of journals may like to consider reviewing and influencing the permissions and OA policies of the journals with which they have a connection
- At the time of writing, compliance with the OA policy will be a condition of the award from Wellcome Trust. There will be sanctions such as suspending grant payments for institutions where authors do not comply with the OA policy
- Wellcome is taking steps to address concerns such as this. See below.
- Wellcome Trust has responded to some key concerns and put work in place to find solutions to others. See Robert Kiley's opinion piece for further information on the following topics:
- What if high-quality journals don’t offer compliant routes – will they be off limits?
- Won’t researchers’ careers be disadvantaged, particularly early career researchers?
- Will international collaborations be threatened?
- Will learned societies be threatened by the loss of publication revenues?
No. Wellcome will not provide funds for non-OA publication costs, eg colour, page charges etc. Note that since 1st March 2019 you may not include such charges within grant applications or claim them back. This policy will continue with the revised OA policy. WT states that “Where these costs apply, researchers must use other funds to meet these costs”
If more than one funder is involved you may be able to source funding for APCs in hybrid journals from a different funder and still be compliant.
As the policy currently stands you may have to discuss the impact of the policy on your publishing plans with collaborators, and which key journals will or will not be available to you. See also guidance from the Wellcome Trust site.
Wellcome-funded institutions must have a policy on responsible research assessment, the University of Warwick's can be found on our website and has been approved by the Open Research Group and the University’s Research Committee.
Preprints must be made available in situations when there is a public health emergency
Further help and information
If you have any questions send to the open access team at openaccessfund at warwick dot ac dot uk.
Open Access for the REF-after-REF2021
Research England has released its OA Policy for the submission of outputs to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021.
The policy applies to journal articles and conference proceedings with an ISSN, these are the outputs that are required to be made open. The policy does not, therefore, cover the following;-Books, book chapters and other long-form publications. Conference proceedings with an ISBN, creative writing, practice-based outputs, Data, confidential items ( e.g. for security or commercial reasons.
To be eligible an output must be:
- Deposited on acceptance for publication or no later than 3 months after acceptance (you can’t go back after publication!)
- Discoverable (must be referenced in a repository but can be closed)
- No specific licence specified is required but advised to use at least CC BY-NC-ND – Creative Commons Non-Commercial-Non-Derivative
This is mandatory for outputs accepted for publication after 1 April 2016.
Please note: WRAP is a compliant repository.
There is a strong indication that a new Open Access policy for the REF-after-REF2021, due to be consulted on in 2022, will mirror this new UKRI policy and will align with Plan S. More information that will be made available once published by Research England.
OA funding request
(Warwick login required)
openaccessfund at warwick dot ac dot uk