Researcher Support Library Services: Current funder policy guidance for UoP authors

Wellcome Trust Open Access policy (updated with effect from 1st January 2021)

Green or Gold is acceptable for compliance.  Check to see if your publisher is compliant with this policy via Sherpa Fact. 

• Gold? Publishers should automatically deposit the published version into PubMed Central immediately on publication.  Gold papers should be published under a CC-BY licence.  APC funding for fully open access journals is available via Wellcome Trust - email the following details to: openaccess@wellcome.ac.uk:

  • your current employing institution
  • title of the paper
  • Wellcome grant reference number
  • journal title
  • proposed date of publication
  • cost of the open access fee.

• Green? The author should deposit the accepted manuscript into Europe PMC immediately upon publication, i.e. without embargo. To ensure compliance with this policy, you must apply a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) public copyright licence to all Author Accepted Manuscripts. The text required for manuscript submission can be found in the Wellcome Trust's guidance: 'Complying with our Open Access policy'

Books/monographs:

The Wellcome Trust's open access policy also applies to monographs.  Email openresearch@plymouth.ac.uk with any queries

In addition to the funder requirements above, deposition of accepted manuscripts to Pearl is mandatory to ensure outputs are eligible for the next REF.  See the REF guidance for details on how to deposit work into PEARL. Please note that until the next REF policy is announced, REF 2021 open access policy should continue to be followed until further notice.

Email openresearch@plymouth.ac.uk with any queries. ​

Wellcome Trust & Plan S:

With effect from 1st January 2021, the following changes have been made to the previous Open Access policy, in accordance with Plan S guidelines (see the updated Open Access policy):

What has changed?

NIHR Open Access policy

* The University does not have any central funding for non UKRI funded APC payments *

NIHR-funded research submitted for publication from 1 June 2022 is subject to the following open access policy:

• Applies to all peer-reviewed research articles, including reviews not commissioned by publishers and conference papers, submitted for publication on or after 1 June 2022
• The most up to date Version of Record or the Author Accepted Manuscript of in-scope articles must be made freely available through PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC by the official final publication date, without any embargo period.
• All in-scope articles must be published under the Creative Commons attribution licence (CC BY), or Open Government Licence (OGL) when subject to Crown Copyright. NIHR may permit, on a case-by-case basis, the use of a more restrictive Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives licence (CC BY-ND); authors should fill out the NIHR Open Access request form to request this.
• Authors to notify subscription journals at the point of submission of their licencing requirements to any resulting author’s accepted manuscript. (This aligns with the Plan S 'Rights Retention Strategy' - see our Plan S guidance for more information.)
  • "For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied [a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence] [an ‘Open Government Licence’] (or where permitted by the NIHR) [a Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence] to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising".

From 1 June 2022 eligible NIHR research award contracts will have an Open Access funding envelope allocated to them, on top of the approved cost of the award, which is ring-fenced for Open Access costs. See the NIHR Open Access publications funding guidance for more details.

In addition to the funder requirements above, deposition of accepted manuscripts to Pearl is mandatory to ensure outputs are eligible for the next REF.  See the REF guidance for details on how to deposit work into PEARL. Please note that until the next REF policy is announced, REF 2021 open access policy should continue to be followed until further notice.

Email openresearch@plymouth.ac.uk with any queries. 

Previous NIHR OA policy - for articles submitted before 1 June 2022

NIHR's new open access policy (see above) applies to all articles submitted after 1 June 2022, superseding the the NIHR open access policy introduced in 2014. The differences between the two policies are detailed below.

NIHR have also amended the method by which authors can request APC funding. For grants awarded before 1 June 2022, it is expected that award holders will make provision from their funding award to cover the costs of publishing in an open access journal. For grants awarded after 1 June, the 'open access envelope' applies (see above).

H2020 open access policy 

“All H2020 projects must provide open access to all peer-reviewed scientific publications that stem from project activities, immediately or otherwise within 6/12 months of publication where publisher embargoes apply.”  

The European Commission's "Guidelines to the Rules on Open Access" (2017)  for Horizon 2020-funded projects do not express a preference for for gold or green as a means of complying with this obligation and compliance can be achieved via the Green route by depositing Author Accepted Manuscripts to Pearl via Symplectic Elements.  (If actioned within 90 days of acceptance, this deposit also meets the university's own OA policy and the REF policy).

Publisher embargoes:

Most publishers specify a longer embargo period for green open access than the EU will tolerate.  If you publisher's embargo period exceeds 6/12 months then you are required to inform the publisher of your funder's requirement and ask for an exception to these restrictions.  The EU have a template (addendum to the copyright transfer agreement) here.

• JISC's Sherpa Romeo tool (How to identify the embargo period for your journal)

Further guidance:

Jisc have published summary of Open Access Requirements for Horizon 2020-Funded Projects (April 2019).  Please note, some projects may be required to deposit data at the end of the project and the JISC guidance explores this further.
 

In addition to the funder requirements above, deposition of accepted manuscripts to Pearl is mandatory to ensure outputs are eligible for the next REF.  See the REF guidance for details on how to deposit work into PEARL. Please note that until the next REF policy is announced, REF 2021 open access policy should continue to be followed until further notice. Following the REF guidance will also ensure compliance with the Horizon OA policy.

Email openresearch@plymouth.ac.uk with any queries. 

Horizon Europe & Plan S:

The European Commission supports Plan S and is a participant in cOAlition S. Plan S will not change anything for researchers funded under Horizon 2020, who will still be allowed a 6/12 month embargo dependent on their discipline.

However, researchers funded by the EU’s 2021-27 R&D programme Horizon Europe will need to comply with Plan S, which means they will need to make research outputs resulting from this funding open immediately upon publication, under a CC-BY license, via either the Gold or Green routes.

On the 25th of February 2021, the European Commission published a draft model grant agreement for Horizon Europe. This is not the final version, but it outlines a zero-embargo open access policy in line with Plan S as well as updated policies on research data management (pp.107-9).

REF Open Access policy

Please note that until the next REF policy is announced, REF 2021 open access policy should continue to be followed until further notice.

Regardless of any other funding, all authors of journal articles and conference papers at the University of Plymouth are required to deposit Author Accepted Manuscripts of these output types within 90 days of acceptance for publication to Pearl via Symplectic Elements.  See our comprehensive advice: http://plymouth.libguides.com/research/ref