A number of research funders have open access policies which require that the outputs from the research they fund should be made more widely available via open access.
Funders’ requirements vary so it is essential that you are aware of the specific requirements of that funder before submitting work to a publisher. For example, one funder may ask for research outputs to be open access after 6 months whereas another may say 12 months, or some request that a CC BY licence is added to the output whilst another may request a CC BY-NC licence instead.
If you are unsure about what you need to do, please get in touch with openaccess@sruc.ac.uk for assistance.
Research Councils UK is the overarching body for UK's seven Research Councils and is one of the main funding bodies in the UK.
The 'RCUK policy on Open Access' (link below) was implemented in 2012 and supports the UK Government's commitment to ensuring that publicly-funded research is made freely available. It applies to peer-reviewed research papers, which acknowledge Research Council funding. Each Research Council has its own requirements (links, where available, are given in the section below).
In order to comply with these policies, you must either:
SRUC is now in receipt of an RCUK Open Access Block Grant is to contribute towards open access publication charges incurred by RCUK-funded researchers, who are required to make their research available in an Open Access format in order to comply with these policies.
This fund operates on a first come first served basis and applications for funds should be submitted once you have a completed manuscript ready to send to the publisher. Funds will be allocated for Gold open access, where your chosen journal does not allow you to meet the RCUK OA requirements via the Green open access route, however the OA team will advise you on this.
Full details on how to apply can be found at: http://sruc.libguides.com/rcukfunding/howtoapply.
The European Commission (EC) now requires that Horizon 2020 grant holders ensure open access to all peer-reviewed publications resulting from funded research. Researchers can comply with this Horizon 2020 policy through either the Green or Gold open access routes.
You can comply via the Green route by depositing your final accepted manuscript in the 'SRUC Repository,' (link below) providing that the publisher embargo is no longer than 6 months (12 for Social Sciences). You must do this within 6 months of publication but it is best practice to deposit once your paper is accepted by the publisher. Please make sure to include the name of the Horizon 2020 action, acronym and grant number on your submission form.
Further information can be found on the 'Horizon 2020' website, and a link to the full guidelines is also available (links below).
The four main UK higher education funding bodies, including the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), have put in place an Open Access policy for the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). This means that certain outputs submittted to the next REF must be made available on an Open Access basis. Detailed instructions and further information is available here: http://sruc.libguides.com/openaccess/ref.
If you are in receipt of funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, there are open access requirements that you must comply with when publishing.
All publications and any underlying data must be made immediately open access, without any publisher embargo. All publications should be published under the 'Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License' (CC BY 4.0) or equivalent (link below).The Foundation will pay any necessary gold open access fees in order for you to meet these requirements - you must contact them directly to arrange this.
For details and full information on the requirements, click on the link below.
Are you funded by more than one body?
If so, you must ensure that you are aware of and comply with the policies for all of them as the requirements of the different funders vary.
Although the funder’s own website and any documentation provided at the issuing of the grant is the definitive place for information on requirements and conditions, there are a number of services which allow you to make quick checks on this information.
Email openaccess@sruc.ac.uk with enquiries on making your papers OA, the REF OA requirements, the SRUC Repository or for further information on OA in general.