International Open Access Week

Today marks the start of International Open Access Week.  

What is Open Access?

Open access means making your research outputs freely available online. The aim is for anyone anywhere in the world to be able to read the research/publication and know what purpose they can use it for.   

Using open access, authors can extend the reach of their research, allowing readers access to material which would otherwise be behind subscription paywalls or other restricted systems.   

Why does it matter? 

Whatever stage you are at in your research career, making your work available to the widest audience is going to extend the reach and impact of the research.   Making work freely available can increase citations and increase the potential for collaborative research. Internet search engines such as Google Scholar search Open Access material deposited in institutional repositories, increasing the visibility of your work.  

Open Access compliance is an essential requirement from research funders in the UK, including the UKRI. Thus, if you are an author of an output of research that has been in receipt of external research funding you need to check and ensure you meet any open access requirements.  

What is more, while open access is certainly about more than the Research Excellence Framework (REF) non-compliant items are not eligible to be submitted.

How to be compliant?

For UKRI-funded projects authors should consult their funding requirements, the UKRI changed their OA Policy in 2022 so it may include aspects that are new to authors.  

For all publications that are from non-external funding, USW authors should do the following:    

1. What: Journal articles and published conference papers   
   
   
2. Where: Deposit copy of the Author Accepted Manuscript* in Pure
   
   
3. When: Within three months of acceptance 

*The Author Accepted Manuscript is the final text of the text of the article or paper after peer review, but before typesetting or formatting by the publisher.    

Further information  

Open access compliance can be difficult to navigate and so here are some resources and further information that can help.  

• Open Access guide
• How to add outputs to Pure
• USW Open Access FAQ
• Introduction to Open Access training course 

    
  

Videos  

• Introduction to Open Access - 1 hour    
• How to be Compliant with the REF Open Access Policy at USW– 20 minutes    
• How to upload a paper into Pure – 15 minutes   
• Read & Publish Deals (Open Access Publishing options) – 20 minutes       

Relevant policies  

• USW Open Access Policy
• UKRI OA Policy

You can also contact Nicholas Roberts, Research Librarian, for advice and support.