Open-access publishing

What? - Why? - How?

JISC publication: Opening up access to research results: Questions and Answers (2005) answers some frequently-asked questions about open-access publishing and self-archiving.
Also available in pdf format.

What?

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has joined other UK research councils in mandating open access publication of research papers funded by EPSRC grants.
This policy will apply to all papers submitted for publication on or after September 1st 2011.
EPSRC will monitor compliance through random checks on accessibility of papers resulting from research funded by EPSRC.

Why?

To provide wide access to research literature resulting from public funding.

How?

Gold model:

The gold or 'author pays' option requires payment by the author for publication in an open-access journal or by selecting the open-access option in a subscribed journal (sometimes called a hybrid journal).
The cost of publication can be recovered as directly incurred costs (before the grant end date) or as indirect costs in a grant application.

Green model:

The green model follows the traditional route of publishing in a subscribed journal but requires self-archiving in an open-access repository.
An embargo period may be required when the paper is only available to subscribers or via pay-per-view.
Depositing in an open-access institutional repository is a convenient method of self-archiving.

The University of Cambridge repository is DSpace@cambridge

DSpace@cambridge

Guidance for authors of journal articles is available here.

It is the author's responsibility to ensure there is no infringement of copyright before depositing a paper in DSpace@cambridge repository and consent of co-authors is required.

DSpace guidance on copyright.

DSpace information on funder mandates.

DSpace and Symplectic Elements

DSpace@cambridge is currently developing a system for uploading papers from the Symplectic Elements database into DSpace@cambridge.

In the Symplectic database a new 'Full text' tab on the record summary will link to a 'manage full text' option.
It is anticipated the new page headed 'Cambridge repository contents for this publication', will include a description of publisher policy regarding archiving (based on information from the Romeo website - see below), links to publisher pages on copyright policy, article posting policies and funding body agreements with that publisher.
From this page files may be uploaded to DSpace@cambridge.
Until this option is available papers may be manually submitted to DSpace.

Publishers' policies

Publishers' policies towards open-access vary.

You can check the policies of your preferred journal publishers.

SHERPA organisation ROMEO project lists publisher policies on open access and self-archiving.

It is possible to search by journal title or publisher.

On the ROMEO site pre-print is defined as a version before peer review and post-print is the revised version after peer review ie the paper as published. (Note appearance may differ as publishers often prohibit use of the publisher-formatted .pdf file and authors must make their own .pdf version for submission to a repository.)

ROMEO colour codes publisher entries according to archiving policy. The colour relates to overall permissions granted by the publisher:

Green: can archive pre-print and post-print or publisher's version/PDF.

Blue: can archive post-print (ie final draft post-refereeing) or publisher's version/PDF.

Yellow: can archive pre-print (ie pre-refereeing).

White: archiving not formally supported.

ROMEO sister project JULIET lists Research Funders' open-access policies.

Links to some publisher websites

ACS press release on open-access. ACS options currently relating to NIH open-access policy mandate and Information for ACS Authors about the NIH Public Access Policy Mandate.

Elsevier funding body agreements and information for authors.

Nature manuscript deposition service ('green' route).

RSC Open Science and frequently-asked questions.

Springer: SpringerOpen
University of Cambridge is a supporter member of SpringerOpen - this provides a 15% discount on the Article Processing Charge (APC) for authors when publishing in Springer open access journals. Example: Organic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters

Wiley Online Library open-access policy.

Open-access journals

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) Chemistry.

See journal title entry in directory for publication costs.

Further information

Detailed information on the background to open-access, publishing issues and open-access initiatives is available on the University of Oxford, Dept of Chemistry website.