Open Data: Wiley to partner with Figshare

In recent years it has become increasingly important for researchers to publish the data underlying research. A search of Sherpa/Juliet (a search engine that compiles funder mandates and policies relating to open access) confirms this, revealing that there are 41 funders that require open access to research data, with a further 18 that encourage it.

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/juliet/stats.php?la=en&mode=advanced. © 2015, University of Nottingham .

The academic publisher Wiley has decided to take a proactive step to help authors meet the data requirements of their funders. Wiley is looking to support authors by integrating data sharing into the existing publication workflow. They are doing this by partnering with Figshare; a cloud based repository for academic research outputs, including data.

The new service offered by Wiley is currently being piloted by a number of journals and will be rolled out over the coming months. Wiley are also expected to release data citation and sharing policies during this time.

Open Access in Canada: “It’s all about choice”

© Copyright 2014 – Canadian Science Publishing.

“[O]pen access is a worldwide phenomenon. However, the urgency of implementation has greater impetus in some nations because of strong OA mandates from large, centralised funders.” Martin Paul Eve, Open Access and the Humanities, p.5. CC BY-SA 4.0

The OA mandates from large funders that Martin Paul Eve mentions in the quote above no doubt refers, at least in part, to RCUK and Wellcome trust open access mandates that have helped to drive OA in the UK. The pace of change gained even greater urgency after HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) released its open access policy for the next Research Excellence Framework. In many respects the UK can be seen to be leading the way in open access, however there are many international initiatives happening as well. So, over the next couple of weeks we will be sharing some international developments in open access. First up is Canada where there have been recent developments akin to those in the UK with large centralised funders mandating OA for papers resulting from funded research.

In Canada there are three main state sponsored funding bodies:

“The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) (“the Agencies”) are federal granting agencies that promote and support research, research training and innovation within Canada. As publicly funded organizations, the Agencies have a fundamental interest in promoting the availability of findings that result from the research they fund, including research publications and data, to the widest possible audience, and at the earliest possible opportunity. Societal advancement is made possible through widespread and barrier-free access to cutting-edge research and knowledge, enabling researchers, scholars, clinicians, policymakers, private sector and not-for-profit organizations and the public to use and build on this knowledge.” Government of Canada, Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications Science.gc.ca*

All grants awarded after May 2015 (and all grants from 1st January 2008 for CIHR funded authors) are required to comply with the harmonised open access policy of the three funders. Grant holders will be required to make peer-reviewed journal articles freely available within 12 months of publication. Authors can choose “green” open access and deposit their accepted manuscript in an online repository, or authors can choose to publish in a journal that offers immediate open access via the “gold” route.

There are similarities between the Canadian funding agencies' OA policy and the RCUK open access policy, but there are divergences as well. One such difference is where RCUK stipulate an embargo of between 6 and 24 months depending on which of the 7 research councils has funded the research, the Canadian OA policy stipulates that only a 12 month embargo is allowed. The two policies differ in their approach to APC payments as well; unlike RCUK who have elected to supply UK institutions with funds to pay for immediate “gold” open access, in the Canadian model the cost of OA publishing can come directly from the grant as an eligible expense.

The Canadian funding agencies' open access policy is predicated on the firm belief that spreading the reach and impact of academic research is beneficial to society, both at home and abroad. Aligning the open access policy of the Agencies with international funding agencies such as RCUK was a principal concern.

“Momentum for open access has been growing as numerous funding agencies and institutions worldwide implement open access policies. The Agencies strongly support open access to research results which promotes the principle of knowledge sharing and mobilization – an essential objective of academia. As research and scholarship become increasingly multi-disciplinary and collaborative, both domestically and internationally, the Agencies are working to facilitate research partnerships by harmonizing domestic policies and aligning with the global movement to open access.” Government of Canada, Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications Science.gc.ca*

The UK is not going it alone, and to paraphrase the Canadian funding agencies, open access is a global movement. Over the next few weeks we will highlight other countries around the world that are actively making commitments to open access.


*Quotations are reproduced from an official work that was published by the Government of Canada. The reproduction has not been produced in affiliation with or with the endorsement of the Government of Canada.

Research publications - what you need to know

The University of St Andrews Library is here to help support you in your studies and research and we are developing a series of new workshops for staff and students. Our first workshops will provide advice on important aspects of research publication that may be new to you.

Research funders increasingly expect publications to be Open Access, new policies affect the way your research outputs are disseminated, and there are new expectations about aspects such as underlying research data. We aim to simplify things for you, and provide the information you need to get the best from your publications, and ensure compliance with funders.

We have two short (45min -1 hour) sessions planned, with more to follow. Sessions are primarily aimed at St Andrews research staff, and would also be suitable for research students who will be publishing journal articles, or research administrators. Each session will be repeated. See details below and on the Library's event page.

Funder and grant acknowledgement: all you need to know
17 March 2015, 14:15 - 15:00: Register for a place
25 March 2015, 10:15 - 11:00: Register for a place

This short session will explain the value of acknowledging funders and grants in your publications, and the best way of doing this. We will cover statements about underlying research data, the basics of linking papers, as well as funding and data in Pure.
There will be a presentation, practical demo, and time for questions covering:

• why proper funding acknowledgements in published journal articles are necessary
• good practice and standard formats for acknowledgements
• capturing funder and grant details – in submission systems and in Pure
• benefits of funder acknowledgement – compliance, reporting, visibility of research
• linking publications and data
• access to underlying data
• not forgetting … correct author affiliation

HEFCE Open Access policy for REF 2020: make sure you’re ready
31 March 2015, 12:30 - 13:30: Register for a place
30 April 2015, 12:30 - 13:30: Register for a place

This informal session will give you the basics of what you need to know – and what you need to do – about Open Access for the next REF.  You will have the chance to ask questions and clear up any concerns you may have.

HEFCE has a new policy for Open Access in the next Research Excellence Framework (REF). In order to be eligible for the next REF the new policy requires peer-reviewed articles and conference proceedings to be available through an institutional repository when they are accepted for publication. The policy will be fully implemented in April 2016. The University is introducing this policy to researchers now, by asking that you upload your accepted manuscripts in Pure.The session will cover questions such as:

1. Depositing papers in Pure
2. Versions and timing – what does ‘accepted for publication’ mean?
3. Exceptions and embargoes – what happens if a publisher doesn’t allow open access?
4. Terminology – what does green OA mean?
5. Cost – will I have to pay for open access?
6. Copyright – am I allowed to do this?

Library Event page: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/university-of-st-andrews-library-4894319079

The Repository: helping to feed the impact of research

Over the years, the OARPS team has spent a great deal of time acquiring academic manuscripts and releasing them to the world through the repository.

Much of our current work involves assisting academics with complying with funder open access mandates. For instance, the RCUK mandate states that RCUK funded research papers should be made Open Access either by choosing "Gold" and paying an APC charge, or by choosing "Green" and uploading the accepted manuscript of the final article to Pure (and then the library can transfer the paper to the repository).

Presently, the team focus has incorporated the new HEFCE open access policy for the next REF as well. The HEFCE open access policy states that in order to be eligible, the accepted manuscripts of articles and conference proceedings (with an ISSN) must be deposited in a repository. The HEFCE open access policy does not come into effect until 2016, but we are tying to push the message now so that we are 100% compliant by that point.

With both these cases the result is more content in the repository. But with deposit being imposed from on high the other benefits of depositing can sometimes play second fiddle. In light if this, we have chosen to show some of the usage metrics from a recent article in the repository. We hope this demonstrates that archiving in the repository can greatly benefit the Impact of research.

A great example is The meanings of chimpanzee gestures which received a lot of media attention when it was published. The authors deposited the accepted manuscript for the article into Pure, which then allowed the OARPS team to get the manuscript into the repository.

Here are some of the repository usage stats for the article:

With statistics like this you have to read between the lines a little bit, but one thing they definitely show is that the article received a lot of attention in July (this was when the article was being covered in the media). Crucially, the stats also tell us that the vast majority of those visiting the page ended up downloading the document. This reliably indicates that the majority of people visiting the page did not have access to the publisher version.

So, with the manuscript in the repository a wider range of people, who do not have a subscription to the journal, can read the full article. This means it can be distributed more widely through society, thus widening the reach of the paper and helping to feed the impact of the research.

Charity alliance launches open access fund

An alliance of charities including Wellcome Trust, British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK has launched a fund to make charitably funded research immediately free to access and re-use. The Head of Digital Services at the Wellcome Trust said "This approach helps to ensure that this knowledge can be built upon and used in a manner that maximises health and public benefit."

The Charity Open Access Fund (COAF) will provide single combined block grants to UK research institutions to meet open access article processing charges for peer-reviewed research publications resulting from research funded by one or more of the six partner charities: Arthritis Research UK, Breast Cancer Campaign, the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research and the Wellcome Trust.

The University of St Andrews already receives a block grant to support open access for Wellcome-funded research papers, and this joint fund will make it even easier to comply with these funders' open access policies.

For more information see the COAF frequently asked questions for researchers or contact the University Library's Open Access team.

For details on the existing criteria for Wellcome Trust funded authors, including the policy extension to cover monographs and book chapters from Oct 2014, see our Library web pages.

University of St Andrews APC data now available

Recently the Open Access and Repository Service Support Team has compiled information on APC spending. APC stands for Article Processing Charge, and this is the charge that applies for Gold open access publishing. In short, APCs cover the operating costs involved in the publication process that would have traditionally been covered by subscriptions.

University of St Andrews APC data 2013-2014.

The information is hosted on Figshare; a cloud-based online storage and distribution platform. This will ensure the data is widely and openly distributed to members of other institutions as well as our own. The spreadsheet lists publication level data which details how the University of St Andrews has spent centrally managed Open Access (OA) funds. Article Processing Charges (APCs) are reported from our RCUK and Wellcome Trust Block Grants, and from a small Library OA fund.

Universities are being encouraged to share data about the costs of Open Access publishing. We believe that sharing information helps the academic community to understand how publishing is changing in the new Open Access environment. For instance, we noted useful information about prepay schemes (these offer discounts as well as streamlining the payment process), as well as highlighting issues that arose during the Open Access payment process.

Workshop on Open Access for St Andrews staff

Do you want a better understanding of what open access means for you? Do you need to know how to comply with your funders' requirements for open access? Would you like an understanding of how using PURE relates to open access publications?

Why not sign up for our course for St Andrews staff:

Open access: publishing options, funder policies, support services and more

Date: Wed 14 May 2014
Time: 1400-1630
Programme: Academic Staff Development Programme

See more details and sign up on PDMS

https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/pdms/index.php?Mode=Search&AudienceID=2&CourseID=3968

HEFCE policy on open access announced

The UK has taken another huge step towards open access of its research outputs, with the announcement of a new policy from HEFCE on behalf of all 4 UK funding bodies. The policy describes new eligibility requirements for outputs submitted to the post-2014 REF.

The policy is interesting in its approach; separating out deposit, discovery and access requirements. It applies to journal articles or conference proceedings (with ISSNs) which are accepted for publication after 1 April 2016, with encouragement for institutions to work towards compliance as soon as possible. Certain exceptions will apply, provided these are justified in the eventual REF submission.

At the heart of the policy is the requirement to deposit publications in a repository within 3 months of acceptance. Bibliographic metadata should be made available to allow discovery by readers, and access to the full text must be provided as soon as possible (unless an exception applies). The full text is expected to be an author’s accepted (peer-reviewed) manuscript, and embargo periods are allowed.

Further details on how to comply and support available for St Andrews researchers will be available soon.

Policy for open access in the post-2014 Research Excellence Framework available at: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2014/201407/#d.en.86771

Mission statement on quality-assured OA research publishing system

The Max Planck Society has presented a draft mission statement in support of the continuing growth of open access.

Ten years since the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities was written, the Max Planck Society hosted the Berlin Open Access Conference (#Berlin11), 19-20 Nov 2013. These conferences have taken place annually, and have been dedicated to support adoption of the Berlin Declaration principles. During Berlin 11, the new mission statement was announced "in order to exploit the innovative and transformational potential of OA", and includes this call:

We call on the signatories of the Berlin Declaration and on all other organisations that perform or support scholarly research to:

1. increase the support for and interoperability of OA repositories for scholarly materials, while reducing and where possible eliminating embargoes, and improving the ability to re-use works;
2. support new and innovative OA publishing models that meet the highest possible scholarly standards, and invest into a publication infrastructure optimised for the needs of research and scholarship; and
3. cooperate with one another to ensure a smooth transition to a stable and functioning, truly open scholarly publishing system, including access to scholarly source and cultural heritage data, where the full text of every research work is open immediately upon publication.

It also urges a strategy that should address standards, quality, stability and a coordinated transition, and concludes:

We believe that a stable, competitive, and quality-assured OA research publishing system offers immense benefits not only to scholarship but also to society as a whole. Scholarly publishing is a global activity, and organisations that perform and support research, particularly those using public money, have a responsibility to work together globally to realise these benefits. It is time to return control of scholarly publishing to the scholars.

See the full Mission Statement at the Berlin 11 Open Access Conference of the Max Planck Society

Horizon 2020: open access to be achieved via repositories

The European Commission has launched its Horizon 2020 programme of research funding. Open access remains a core principle, and the model grant agreement describes the expectations for grant recipients.

All peer-reviewed scientific publications relating to results of a project must be made open access, either by publishing in an open access journal (gold OA), or by self-archiving in a repository (green OA). In either case, a 'machine-readable electronic copy of the published version or final peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication' should be deposited into a repository for scientific publications. If the researcher chooses 'gold' open access then the deposited final version will be made open access immediately. Where researchers choose 'green' open access, then the manuscript (usually the author's accepted version) should be made open access within 6 months.

For St Andrews authors, the usual mechanism of depositing into PURE will allow the Library to help with making your publication open access. Contact open-access-support@st.andrews.ac.uk for advice.

The Open Access in Horizon 2020 factsheet provides more detail, including information about related research data: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/sites/horizon2020/files/FactSheet_Open_Access.pdf

The text of the Model Grant Agreement regarding 'Open access to scientific publications' can be found on page 58, section 29.2: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/mga/gga/h2020-mga-gga-mono_en.pdf

RCUK Open Access Policy - guidance for St Andrews authors

The new RCUK Policy on Open Access was implemented on 1st April 2013.  We have updated a short two page document which describes the key points in the new policy and gives useful guidance information for St Andrews authors on how to comply.  The document: RCUK OA policy briefing is available along with further details from the Library web pages. The full RCUK Policy on Open Access is available from Research Councils UK.

We hope that you will find this guidance useful. It will continue to be updated as new information and processes are developed.

When contacting the Library to check how to comply with the RCUK OA policy, please provide the following details:

    Your name, School and email address
    Journal and publisher
    Article title, manuscript ID or DOI if available
    RCUK funder name and external Grant ID acknowledged in the paper

Help and guidance is always available by contacting open-access-support@st-andrews.ac.uk

HEFCE proposals on open access - consulation

On behalf of UK higher education funding bodies, HEFCE has announced a consultation on open access in the post-2014 Research Excellence Framework. The funding bodies are committed to a policy that supports increased public access to research outputs. Advice was sought on developing a joint policy in Feb 2013, and an analysis of the advice received will be available from HEFCE's page on open access to publicly funded research.

Proposals for implementing an open access requirement in the post-2014 Research Excellence Framework have now been published, with responses invited by 30 Oct 2013. Proposals [PDF]

The policy covers journal articles and conference proceedings, and the main criteria proposed are:

• Outputs should be accessible through a UK higher education institution (HEI) repository, immediately upon either acceptance or publication, though the repository may provide access in a way that respects agreed embargo periods.
• Outputs should be made available as the final peer-reviewed text, though not necessarily identical to the publisher’s edited and formatted version.
• Outputs should be presented in a form allowing the reader to search for and re-use content (including by download and for text-mining), both manually and using automated tools, provided such re-use is subject to proper attribution under appropriate licensing.

Monographs are not currently included in the proposals, and there will be allowance for exceptions (either on a case-by-case basis or through an agreed percentage compliance) for example when papers have international co-authors or a publication has no open access option. There are 7 main questions in the consultation, including whether a notice period of 2 years is appropriate.

See the full report: Consultation on open access in the post-2014 REF

The University of St Andrews already provides infrastructure that allows researchers to easily make their outputs accessible. Publications can be recorded in PURE, with links to projects and data added where relevant. Full text can be deposited immediately on acceptance, and automated embargo dates can be set to make the output open access in Research@StAndrews:FullText at the appropriate time. Staff in the Library can help with this.

Contact the library for advice: Open Access support
See our Open Access support web pages

Collective approach to open access by Science Europe

Science Europe has just released a position statement on the transition to open access. Their press release states:

Science Europe’s 51 member organisations are all committed to ensuring that results of publicly-funded research and innovation in Europe are available through an unrestricted, online access system, and have identified a list of ten principles that will ensure consistency and coherence in their efforts towards Open Access.

The principles include recognition for the role of repositories and the mixed approach of 'green' and 'gold' routes to open access. They also stress that 'the hybrid model, as currently defined and implemented by publishers, is not a working and viable pathway to Open Access.' The short position statement and shared principles can be found at http://www.scienceeurope.org/uploads/Public%20documents%20and%20speeches/SE_OA_Pos_Statement.pdf

Science Europe is an association of European Research Funding Organisations (RFO) and Research Performing Organisations (RPO), based in Brussels. It includes the UK Research Councils and aims to promote a collective voice for the European Research Area.

RCUK Open Access Policy briefing

1st April 2013 is the start date for the new RCUK policy on Open Access. We have compiled a short two page document which describes the key points in the new policy and gives useful guidance information on how to comply for St Andrews authors. The RCUK OA policy key points and guidance document is available from the Library web pages at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/library/information/furtherhelp/openaccess/ .

The latest RCUK open access policy revised on 6th March 2013 is available at http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/Pages/outputs.aspx

RCUK are expected to issue revised guidance early in April 2013 as a result of further consultation with stakeholders. We will keep you updated on announcements through this blog and on our webpages. Help and guidance is always available at open-access-support

UPDATE: Latest revisions to the policy guidance and new FAQ available from RCUK OA policy page at http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/Pages/outputs.aspx

March for open access

The University of St Andrews has received funding from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to help with the transition to open access. During March 2013 funds will be available to cover 'Gold' open access costs, and to support 'Green' open access options.

To claim Article Processing Charges (APCs) from this 'BIS OA fund', or to find out how to make your article open access by depositing into our repository Research@StAndrews:FullText, contact open-access-support

See more information on our Library web pages on open access, including:

• Research funders: open access policies
• Open access FAQ
• Open access definitions (including 'green' and 'gold')

Proposals for post-2014 REF open access

The UK funding councils have issued proposals for open access to research outputs in the next Research Exellence Framework after 2014. The proposals recognise "the significant role of institutional repositories in increasing sustainable and convenient public access to research" and do not express a preference for 'gold' or 'green' routes. The proposals also cover funding body expectations, embargo periods, monograph publication and principles of open data.

Times Higher Education article: Funding councils publish REF open-access proposals

HEFCE's letter outlining these proposals (pdf)

HEFCE invites advice and feedback in a consultation process to run until 25 March 2013.

Transition to open access

Since the release of the Finch report in June 2012, open access has been high on the agenda for researchers, and many HEIs have been busy developing their support services to help navigate the changing landscape of scholarly publishing. Repository services in University of St Andrews Library currently provide support for deposit of full text ('Green' OA), advocacy for open access, advice on copyright and licensing, opportunities to start open access journals (through our journal hosting service), and co-ordination of open access payments for research outputs ('Gold' OA). The services are currently being developed to respond to the increase in demand for open access support, and in particular to help manage our compliance with the new RCUK policy on open access.

The University of St Andrews is one of the 30 research intensive Universities in the UK which is receiving a £10 million allocation of Government money to help with the exploration of and transition to open access publishing models. The University’s share of the fund totals £137k. The Library has contacted all Directors of Research to provide additional information about this funding and how we want to work with our academic community, so we can all gain a better understanding of the issues we will need to address in order to make this transition a success. This will help us prepare for the allocation of block grants from RCUK to pay for Article Processing Charges (APCs) for RCUK-funded outputs.

Our existing web pages about funders' open access policies will be updated, and members of the Library's Academic Liaison team will be consulting with researchers. We will operate two distinct phases:

• The initial “BIS funding” will allow us to investigate a range of open access options, seek feedback from our academic community and prepare for the transition towards open access
• Operation of the RCUK block grant to be received in April 2013, which will allow us to implement the new RCUK policy on open access and pay for ‘Gold’ open access

We welcome enquiries from St Andrews researchers:
Email open access support

Further information and contact details at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/library/information/furtherhelp/researchsupport/researchoutputs/ 

Massive shift to open access for UK

July 16 was a big day for open access in the UK. The latest SPARC Open Access Newsletter (SOAN) by Peter Suber describes the 'tipping point' for the open access movement.



SOAN #165 (Sep 2, 2012) gives a detailed analysis of 3 major announcements on 16 July 2012 from RCUK, HEFCE and the UK Minister for Universities and Science, including the potential consequences for journals and authors. The newsletter also covers the subsequent release of documents from the European Commission on OA policy. Taken together, these announcements appear to make the transition to open access for scholarly publishing innevitable - at least across Europe.

Discussions are now under way across institutions to decide how to manage the transition, including the costs involved and mechanisms for adapting to new business models from publishers. The UK government has recently announced additional funding for some universities, to 'kick-start' this process.

RCUK welcomes additional investment in Open Access

Open access support from RSC

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has announced a new scheme to help researchers pay for open access publishing.

“UK institutes who are RSC Gold customers will shortly receive credit equal to the subscription paid, enabling their researchers, who are being asked to publish Open Access but often do not yet have funding to pay for it directly, to make their paper available via Open Science, the RSC's Gold OA option.”

http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/PressReleases/2012/gold-for-gold-rsc-open-access.asp

This follows a series of events that are reshaping the way research outputs are published. Over the last month there has been a flood of announcements about making publicly funded research outputs available to anyone for free (open access). The UK Government has backed a transition to open access, with the release of the report of the Working Group on Expanding Access to Published Research Findings (Finch report) which stated:

“The principle that the results of research that has been publicly funded should be freely accessible in the public domain is a compelling one, and fundamentally unanswerable.”

On 28 June The Wellcome Trust announcedthat it will be re-enforcing its open access mandate, with sanctions for institutions on non-compliance including future grant payments being withheld. Earlier this week RCUK announced a new policy on open access to research outputs, significantly strengthening the existing requirements for grant holders to ensure their peer-reviewed articles are freely available to all, and the following day the European Commission released a similar message:

“Scientific data: open access to research results will boost Europe's innovation capacity” (EU press release)

The new RCUK and EU policies continue to allow articles to be accessible either:

• Directly by the publisher (usually through payment of a fee), known as ‘Gold’ open access; or
• Through deposit of an author version in an open access repository (often after a limited embargo period) known as ‘Green’ open access.

There is much debate about how these changes will be managed, funded and resourced. In the meantime, this is an interesting and positive commitment from RSC to help researchers benefit from open access publishing and meet their funders’ requirements.

Open Access message for Wellcome grant holders

Earlier this year there was news that the Wellcome Trust would be introducing a tougher stance on compliance with their open access policy, and they have now outlined the steps they will take:

The Wellcome Trust today announces that it will be strengthening the manner in which it enforces its open access policy with immediate effect. Failure to comply with the policy could result in final grant payments being withheld and non-compliant publications being discounted when applying for further funding.

The Guardian also reports on this new policy: Wellcome Trust to penalise scientists who don't embrace open access.

Support is available for St Andrews researchers who are in receipt of a Wellcome Trust grant. The Wellcome Trust has provided money to the University specifically to cover article fees for publishing in open access journals. The Trust also provides a list of frequently used journals with specific advice on how best to comply.