Authors' guide to UK funders' open access policies
1. What triggered the Open Access debate?
2i. Author-pays
2ii. Self-archiving
2iii. Repositories
3. Understanding funders’ policies
4. How do I find out the Open Access policy of the journal I wish to publish in?
5. How can I access the funds to pay Open Access charges?
6. What if no one will provide funds?
7. If I want to choose Open Access, but it is not a requirement, can I get funds?
Table: Summary of UK bioscience funders' policies.
1. What triggered the Open Access debate?
For many, many years scientists have published their research in peer-reviewed journals and the cost of the publication process has been borne by libraries and individuals in the form of a journal subscription paid to the publisher.
As library budgets have been cut, while at the same time the number and size of journals, and their prices, have risen, the question of those who need being able to access all the relevant research became a matter for debate. The question was also raised about the ethics of charging the public to read the outcomes of research funded with public money. Some believe that published research should all be free to all; however, publishers make a significant investment in ensuring quality and in new technology to benefit the end user, and we should not forget that learned societies use the income from publishing journals to fund further research and provide other support (eg grants and training) to UK researchers and students, as demonstrated by the Biosciences Federation report.
The National Institutes of Health in the USA were the first funding organisation to draft guidelines on Open Access. The Wellcome Trust in the UK then published its views.
In 2003 the debate reached government when the Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology were asked to conduct an inquiry into access to journals within the scientific community. The findings of the committee were published in July 2004, contributing to the move to revise policies regarding funding and publication of scientific research across the UK.
The Research Councils UK, who invests about £2.8 billion a year in research, in June 2006 published a position statement on access to research outputs.
In response to this, most bodies that fund bioscience research in the UK have now published their own policies. While the details of policies differ, there is an underlying consensus amongst funding bodies that research should be made widely accessible as soon as possible whilst maintaining rigorous quality assurance.
This guide aims to provide you with all the information you need about the current funders’ policies and associated issues.
2. What is Open Access?
Most researchers will find that they have seamless online access to many of the journals they read. This is usually because the institution has paid the subscription fee to enable this. This is not the same as Open Access.
The term ‘Open Access’, in terms of scientific publishing, is used to refer to two very distinct practices.
2i. Author-pays
The first is the author-pays publishing model which is sometimes referred to as the Gold route to Open Access.
This is an alternative business model for publishing that is potentially viable, under which the costs of publishing are borne by the authors (or the authors’ institutions) rather than the subscribers to a journal.
Upon the payment by the author of an Open Access fee, the final published article is immediately made freely available online to all. This free access is permanent and the user has the right to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly, subject to proper attribution of authorship.
Some publishers work completely to this model, such as Public Library of Science (PLoS) and BioMed Central; some have specific journals that are author-pays; and some offer an author-pays option on many journals. Publishers have many different names for their own versions of the author-pays model including I-Open (Taylor & Francis), Online Open (Blackwell), Open Choice (Springer), Oxford Open (OUP) and Opt2Pay (Portland Press). Journals containing a mixture of Open Access and subscription-based articles are often referred to as 'hybrid' journals.
2ii. Self-archiving
The second is a practice, rather than a publishing model: the archiving of articles in free online repositories, often called self-archiving, also referred to as the Green route to Open Access.
Many funding bodies now require authors to self-archive, but the timeframe for depositing articles, the version of the article to be archived and which repository it should be deposited in can vary massively.
Funding bodies do not necessarily provide funds to cover Open Access fees and, where an Open Access fee is not paid, most publishers have an embargo period before which the article cannot be made free in a repository. Where an Open Access fee is paid, most publishers will deposit the final version of your article in an online repository for you, upon publication.
2iii. Repositories
UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) is the main online repository where deposit of articles is required in the UK. It is based on PubMed Central (PMC), the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.
Many universities will have their own institutional repository where they encourage or even require their researchers to archive their work. For an extensive list of Open Access repositories, see http://roar.eprints.org.
Most repositories have poorer functionality than online journals. They may contain variant versions of articles, notably authors’ accepted manuscripts (prior to copy editing, formatting and proofing), rather than the final version of record, especially if no Open Access fee has been paid to the publisher. The copies on repositories will not usually be as effectively indexed and cross-linked as those published in online journals, and this will affect their visibility.
For further information see the Biosciences Federation’s position statement on Open Access published in September 2007.
3. Understanding funders' policies
Many UK funding bodies now require publications resulting from research that they have funded to be made freely available online, either by self-archiving or by author-pays publishing.
The policies of the main UK biosciences funders are summarised in the Table of UK Bioscience Funders' policies.
In addition, the SHERPA JULIET database lists all funders’ policies on access to research.
4. How do I find out about the Open Access policy of the journal I wish to publish in?
Most journals have their self-archiving policies on their websites, so that will be the first place to look. In addition, you can search the SHERPA RoMEO database. This summarises the policies of a large number of publishers and can be searched by publisher or journal name. (Note that the Society of Biology takes no responsibility for the accuracy of external sites, and recommends that you check the publishers' own web sites before making any decisions about whether to submit to a given journal.)
If the journal you want to submit to doesn’t have a policy or it isn’t very clear, contact their editorial office, giving details of your funder’s policy and asking whether there is a conflict with the journal’s archiving and copyright policies.
5. How can I access the funds to pay Open Access charges?
How you access the funds (where such funds are available) depends on your funder and your institution. Some authors will need to contact the funder directly and others will need to apply to their institution for funds. See the Table and the policy pages for details. If your funder doesn’t provide additional money to cover Open Access fees, contact your institution to find out whether they can provide funds. If your funder does provide funds but you are having difficulty accessing these via your institution, contact your funding body for advice.
6. What if no one will provide funds?
If one or more of your funders require you to self-archive your manuscript before the publisher’s embargo, but none of them will provide funds to cover Open Access fees, you may need to pay the charges from your lab or department budget. The Society of Biology supports the author’s right to publish in the journal of their choice. Therefore, if you are not able to access funds where self-archiving is mandated, we recommend you make strong representation to both your university and your funding body.
7. If I want to choose Open Access, but it is not a requirement, can I get funds?
Where your funding body does not require you to choose the author-pays route, you may still wish to opt for this model of publishing.
BBSRC and NERC fit into this category. BBSRC have said that they will pay Open Access fees where they are included in the FEC calculations on grant applications, but will not provide additional funds at a later stage. BBSRC institutions are expected to meet any such costs from their existing budgets, so should authors at these institutes wish to choose optional OA they will need to ask their institution if funds are available. NERC’s policy on this is not clear, so authors are advised to contact them should the situation arise.
8. I have moved to a different institution but I'm now publishing the results of work carried out at my previous institution. Who is responsible for paying the OA fees?
This is one of the problems being considered by funding bodies and the Journals Committee. For now, you will need to contact your funder for guidance.
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