Open Access at University of Reading: Funders' OA policies

ARTICLES 

Before submitting a manuscript to the publisher

1. Check that the journal is compliant with either Route 1 or Route 2 described below. 
2. For Route 1, check that the University has funds or publisher agreements in place to cover any Gold Open Access publishing costs. Complete the Library's OA request form to find out. If funding is not available, you will need to comply via Route 2. 
3. For Route 2, notify your publisher that you will be applying a CC BY licence to your submission 

Route 1. (Gold Open Access) Publish your article as Gold Open Access with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. The Version of Record must be available for access and download as soon as it is published. Route 1 includes publication in: a fully Open Access journal, OR a subscription (hybrid) journal which permits a CC BY licence and access as soon as published, OR a subscription (hybrid) journal in a Transformative Agreement

Route 2. (Green Open Access) Publish your article in a subscription journal and deposit the Author's Accepted Manuscript (or the Version of Record if it is permitted by the publisher) in the institutional repository, CentAUR. It must have a CC BY licence. No embargoes are permitted.

Apply licensing requirements

UKRI requires the Open Access version of a research article to be published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. This applies to both Route 1 and Route 2.

For Route 2 article submissions, the following text must be included in the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript and any cover letter/note accompanying the submission:

For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a ‘Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence (where permitted by UKRI, ‘Open Government Licence’ or ‘Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY ND) licence’ may be stated instead) to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising

There are exceptions to this licence:

• An Open Government Licence (OGL) can be used when a research article is subject to Crown Copyright.
• While a CC BY licence is appropriate in most cases, UKRI may permit, on a case-by case basis, the use of a more restrictive Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY ND) licence for the open access version of a research article.
  • To request this exception (this must be in advance of publication) apply via the UKRI form for a No-Derivatives Licence exception.
  • If a publisher rejects your submission, advises you will need to pay for Open Access or changes the terms of publication, contact oarequests@reading.ac.uk for advice.

Include a Data Access Statement

UKRI requires in-scope research articles to include a Data Access Statement, even where there are no data associated with the article or the data are inaccessible.

Other requirements 

Some research councils have further requirements regarding deposit in specialist repositories and making preprints available. Check the terms and conditions of the offer document.

MONOGRAPHS, BOOK CHAPTERS AND EDITED COLLECTIONS

This part of the policy is still being developed. UKRI intends to provide final updates in autumn 2023. 

Scope

Monographs, book chapters and edited collections published from January 2024 that result from  UKRI funded projects will need to be available Open Access. You can comply via the gold or green Open Access routes.

Annex 1 of the policy clarifies which types of book are within the scope of the policy and which are not

The final Version of Record (gold) or the Author’s Accepted Manuscript (green) must be free to view and download via an online publication platform, publisher’s website or CentAUR within a maximum of 12 months of publication, and have a Creative Commons licence. 

Exemptions

• you have signed a contract with a publisher before 1 January 2024, which doesn’t enable Open Access in compliance with UKRI’s policy
• the most appropriate publisher, after liaison and consideration, is unable to offer a compliant Open Access option
• where reuse permissions for third-party materials cannot be obtained and there is no suitable alternative option available to enable Open Access publication
• long-form outputs arising from UKRI Training Grants are exempt from the requirements, recognising publication may occur sometime beyond the lifetime of a training grant
• trade books

Annex 3 of the policy provides guidance on exemptions

Funding

UKRI will hold Open Access funds centrally. The Library will handle applications from authors and will register them with UKRI for confirmation of eligibility (stage 1) and again on publication to access the funds (stage 2). The Library will handle payments. Full guidance on the application process and permissible costs will be published by UKRI in autumn 2023. Funding will be available from autumn 2023. 

If you are currently applying for a research grant and expect to publish a monograph, book chapter or edited collection between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024, you may include Open Access costs in your grant application, if publication is expected to happen during the lifetime of your award. Otherwise, you should wait to apply to the dedicated UKRI open access fund launching in Autumn 2023.

If you are publishing a monograph, book chapter or edited collection before 1 January 2024, there is no requirement to publish Open Access. However, you may choose to include Open Access costs in your grant application.

Publication checklist and workflow

1. Prior to submission of your book proposal, check that your preferred publisher offers a compliant route and what Open Access funding is available to you. If your preferred publisher does not have an Open Access publishing programme or permit compliant archiving of the author final manuscript in CentAUR, consider other publishers before considering an exemption.
2. Inform your publisher, and any collaborators, (such as editor of a collection you are contributing to) about UKRI’s Open Access requirements
3. Submit a Stage 1 application to UKRI’s fund, if complying via the Version of Record, to confirm eligibility. (This process will be developed for autumn 2023.)
4. If applicable, submit a stage 2 funding application via your research organisation. (This process will be developed for autumn 2023.) You must have acknowledged UKRI funding in your work.
5. On publication:
   • check that your work has been published as Open Access if complying via the Version of Record route and add it to CentAUR;  
   • archive your work in CentAUR if complying via the Author Accepted Manuscript route. 

Licence requirements

UKRI requires a Creative Commons licence to be applied to the book, chapter or edited collection. CC BY is preferred. An Open Government Licence is permitted when authors are subject to Crown Copyright. 

Third party material

For any third-party content within copyright, only include the content under the licence or terms under which the rightsholder has released it.

UKRI’s licensing requirements do not apply to any materials included within a long-form output that are provided by third-party copyright holders. Academic books published under a CC BY, or other creative commons licence may include third-party materials (such as images, photographs, diagrams or maps) which are subject to a more restrictive licence. UKRI considers this approach compliant with its policy.

UKRI recognises that there may be some instances where permissions for reuse in an Open Access book cannot be obtained for all third-party images or other materials. Therefore, an exception to the policy may be applied when reuse permissions for third-party materials cannot be obtained and there is no suitable alternative option available to enable Open Access publication

UKRI recognises that there may be some instances where permissions for reuse in an Open Access book cannot be obtained for all third-party images or other materials. Therefore, an exception to the policy may be applied when reuse permissions for third-party materials cannot be obtained and there is no suitable alternative option available to enable Open Access publication.

Wellcome Trust Open Access Policy 

The overarching aim of the Open Access (OA) policy is to make sure that knowledge and discoveries resulting from Wellcome Trust funding are shared and used in a way that maximises their benefit to health.

Who does it affect?

Grant recipients whose publications include original research that is funded in whole, or in part, by Wellcome. It applies to:

• journal articles
• scholarly monographs and book chapters

How to comply with the policy for Journal articles submitted from 1 January 2021

Before submitting a manuscript to the publisher:

Use the Journal Checker Tool to check if your preferred journal enables you to comply with the Wellcome Trust policy and to decide which of the  routes described below that you should take.

1. Ensure that the publisher supports the following Open Access criteria:

• the article will be made freely available through PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC by the official final publication date
  AND
• published under a Creative Commons attribution licence (CC BY), unless the funder has agreed, as an exception, to allow publication under a CC BY ND licence.

2. Ensure that the journal accepts that the Author Accepted Manuscripts arising from submissions from Wellcome-funded researchers will already be licensed under a prior CC BY licence

3. Ensure that you have funds to cover the cost of any Open Access publishing charges. 

• Fully Open Access journals: Wellcome Trust will cover fair and reasonable costs for fully Open Access (Gold) journals that are indexed by the Directory of Open Access journals.
• Subscription journals: Subscription journals covered by a Library Transformative Agreement will not incur Open Access publishing costs. The Welcome Trust does not pay Open Access costs for subscription (hybrid) journals not included in these agreements.  

There are three publishing routes you can follow to comply with Wellcome’s policy. Routes 1 and 2 are preferred.

Route 1: Publish in a fully Open Access (Gold) journal or platform.

Route 2: Publish in a subscription (hybrid) journal through a transformative arrangement that is available to you via your organisation.

Route 3: Publish in a subscription journal and take responsibility for making the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) freely available from Europe PMC at the time of publication.

Acknowledge your funder

Grantholders must also include the following statement on all submissions of original research to peer-reviewed journals:

'This research was funded in whole, or in part, by the Wellcome Trust [Grant number]. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.'

Make data and software available

All research articles supported in whole, or in part, by Wellcome must include a statement explaining how other researchers can access any data, original software or materials underpinning the research. This is in line with the funder's data, software and materials management and sharing policy.

Preprints

All Wellcome-funded researchers are strongly encouraged to:

• post preprints of their work
• publish them under a CC BY licence on a platform that is indexed in Europe PMC.

Where there is a significant public health benefit to preprints being shared widely and rapidly, such as a disease outbreak, the posting of preprints is required.

How to comply with the policy for monographs and book chapters

All original scholarly monographs and book chapters authored or co-authored by Wellcome grantholders as part of their grant-funded research, must be:

• made freely available through NCBI Bookshelf PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC as soon as possible and no later than within 6 months of the official final publication date

AND

• be published under a Creative Commons licence where a fee has been paid to the publisher to make the work Open Access. Wellcome Trust preference is for a Creative Commons attribution licence (CC BY), however, researchers may choose to publish their work under any of the Creative Commons licences including non-commercial and non-derivative licences (CC BY NC or CC BY NC ND).

Wellcome Trust funding is available to cover publishers' Open Access monograph and book chapter processing charges.

Further information 

Authors should consult the Wellcome Trust web pages. These include advice on definitions, deposit processes, exceptions and waivers, meeting Open Access costs, step-by step processes and links to forms and templates.

Horizon Open Access Policy 

Under Horizon 2020, beneficiaries of ERC grants must ensure Open Access (free of charge, online access for any user) to all peer-reviewed scientific publications relating to its results. The detailed requirements on Open Access to publications are contained in the Horizon 2020 ERC Model Grant Agreement (Article 29.2).

Who does it affect?

All grant holders. It applies to:

• Open Access to all peer-reviewed journal articles (required)
• monographs, books, conference proceedings and grey literature (strongly advised).

How to comply with the policy 

Before submitting a manuscript to the publisher

1. Ensure that the publisher offers an Open Access option compliant with the Gold or Green routes defined below. 

2. Check that you have funds to cover the Open Access publishing costs. Charges are eligible for reimbursement from the grant during the duration of the project. If the grant has closed, you may request funds from the University's Open Access fund. Apply for funding using the Library's Open Access request form. If funding is not available, you will need to comply with the funder's policy via the Green Open Access route.

If funds are not available, investigate publication on the dedicated platform, Open Research Europe. This platform has been funded by the European Commission for 4 years to publish research from funders who received a Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe grant. Researchers who received funding are not charged an APC for publication. 

After acceptance

3. Archive your peer-reviewed manuscript in a suitable repository as soon as accepted for publication. ERC strongly encourages ERC funded researchers to use discipline-specific repositories for their publications. Also, deposit it in CentAUR.

4. Make the final version of the article Open Access, by either the Green or Gold Open Access route:

Green Open Access route - archive a final version in a repository as soon as accepted for publication. The maximum embargo periods permitted are 6 months for STEM disciplines, and 12 months for Humanities and Social Sciences.

Gold Open Access route - publish it as Open Access on the publisher's website, and archive a copy in CentAUR. It should be available immediately, without embargo. Authors are encouraged to retain copyright and grant an adequate licence to publishers e.g. CC BY. The minimum requirement is that the licence must allow people to read, download and print an article.

Acknowledge your funder

If the repository allows for this, beneficiaries of ERC grants are strongly encouraged to ensure that the bibliographic metadata also includes additional information such as the European Research Council (ERC) as funding source, the grant number, the title of the action and its acronym, the publication date, and the length of the embargo period (if applicable). For ease of tracking, beneficiaries should include the digital object identifier for the 'European Research Council' (http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000781) in the funding acknowledgement field in their metadata, in addition to the digital object identifier for 'Horizon 2020' (http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100007601).

Archive research data

In Horizon 2020 the European Commission has been encouraging Open Access to and reuse of digital research data generated by Horizon 2020 projects through the Open Research Data Pilot (ORD Pilot), following FAIR data principles - all research data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR)

The Leverhulme Trust does not have a mandate for Open Access and has made no stipulations regarding mandatory archiving or Open Access publication for grant holders (last checked February 2022). 

It is possible to include Open Access charges in your budget when you apply for funding from the Trust. The Open Access charges must be incurred during the period of the grant. If the costs are not incurred during the life of the grant, funds allocated for Open Access must be returned to the Trust. 

If your grant has expired and you would like to publish Open Access, you may qualify for funding via the Reading University Gold Open Access Fund. To access the fund, complete the Library's Open Access request form.  

Many funders and sponsors have requirements that research publications resulting from their grants are made Open Access. The agreements that you have signed will specifiy what you need to do. 

Use SHERPA/JULIET to find summaries of and links to funders' Open Access policies