Revised RCUK open access policy

Research Councils UK (RCUK) has today published the latest version of its guidance for its revised Policy on Open Access, which comes into effect on 1 April 2013. The guidelines contain additonal information on how block grants are to be used to enable open access for RCUK-funded research outputs. The University of St Andrews will receive £203,593 in April to cover these costs.

RCUK are seeking feedback on the revised guidelines, to be submitted by 20 March 2013.

A finalised OA policy will be published with any further clarifications on the RCUK OA Policy page.

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.

Landmark US directive on open access

On Friday 22 Feb 2013 the White House issued a directive which requires federal agencies with annual research and development budgets of $100 million or more to provide free online access to the results of that research, within a year of publication. It has been described as a watershed moment by Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC and follows closely on the introduction of a new open access bill to the US Congress: Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR).

These two important developments have been praised by open access advocates such as SPARC, Creative Commons and the Association of Research Libraries, and are compared here by Peter Suber. While the directive and FASTR differ on proposed embargo lengths, they both recommend deposit in a repository as the route to open access, rather than the 'Gold' route (publication in OA journals) favoured by the UK government.

The announcement and policy are available from the Obama Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The directive comes after years of campaigning for open access, and a We the People petition 'Require free access over the Internet to scientific journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research' which received over 65000 signatures and this official response.

Ethnographic Encounters latest open access articles

We are pleased to announce that the open access journal Ethnographic Encounters, hosted by the University of St Andrews Library Journal Hosting Service, has released its latest issue. Now in its third volume, this journal has been developed by a team of enthusiastic and talented student Editors under the leadership of Dr Craig Lind.

Ethnographic Encounters is a platform for the work of the University of St Andrews undergraduate Social Anthropology students. The e-journal presents a valuable resource for future students to draw on the experience and insights of their predecessors, and offers a means for Social Anthropology students throughout the world to engage with their peers in St Andrews.

Congratulations to outgoing Editor Francesca Vaghi as she hands on the reins to a new Editorial Team.

Open Library of Humanities launches

A new project has launched with the aim of "building a low cost, sustainable, Open Access future for the humanities."


This inititative should be of great interest to those who attended the main event hosted by the University of St Andrews Library for Open Access Week 2012 - The humanities and open access: opportunities and challenges.

Details of the academic backing and plans for the project can be found at http://www.openlibhums.org

Open Library of Humanities (OLH) will be an open access “megajournal” in the style of the US-run Public Library of Science (PLOS) http://www.plos.org and http://www.plosone.org; which will publish thoroughly peer reviewed humanities and social science research under Open Access conditions at a financially fair rate.

The Open Library of Humanities aims to provide a platform for Open Access publishing that is:

• Reputable and respected through rigorous peer review 
• Sustainable Digitally preserved and safely archived in perpetuity 
• Non-profit 
• Open in both monetary and permission terms 
• Non-discriminatory (APCs are waiverable) 
• Technically innovative in response to the needs of scholars and librarians 
• A solution to the serials crisis

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/