Open access
OA (Open Access) aims to make academic research outputs available electronically, immediately, without charge and free from most copyright or licensing restrictions.
OA content is generally published under a Creative Commons licence, e.g. CC BY. This means the creator of the content should still be credited for their work.
OA can be applied to all forms of published research output, including peer-reviewed and non peer-reviewed academic journal articles, conference papers, theses, book chapters, and monographs.
The new Institutional Open Access Policy and Implementation [PDF] dictates that all academic outputs must be deposited to RMAS. All submissions to RMAS, once validated by library staff, will be automatically uploaded to the Institutional Repository. The University of Bedfordshire advocates the use of the Green Open Access route as the most economically effective route. Green Open Access involves self-archiving and is the practice of depositing articles in an institutional repository or a subject repository. Most outputs will follow the Green Open Access route, which involves depositing the author’s accepted manuscript (Post-print) outputs on RMAS.
The accepted manuscripts of outputs with definite date of acceptance, such as journal articles and conference proceeding articles with an ISSN number, should be uploaded top RMAS by the author no later than two weeks from the date of acceptance. For outputs without definite date of acceptance, such as books, chapters in books, reports, authors must upload the accepted manuscript to RMAS within two weeks from the first publication date. For more information, please visit the Research Management Administration System and Open Access section on in.beds.
Recent years have seen a major global movement develop to minimise access barriers, encouraged by the opportunities that internet technologies bring.
It is argued that publicly funded research should be available, not only to other researchers but also to members of the public. This is being reflected in grant conditions specified by funding bodies, notably the Wellcome Trust and most of the Research Councils in the UK (UKRI). These stipulate that researchers getting grants must make the results freely available in repositories, either discipline based or institutional.
The REF2021 Open Access regulations REF2021 Guidance on Submissions applied to:
- Journal articles
- Conference proceedings with International Standard Serial Number
We do not yet know the Open Access regulations for the next REF exercise, but they are likely to increase the demands for Open Access, with more types of output included and a need for more immediate open access. We believe the University of Bedfordshire Open Access Policy and Implementation [PDF], on which the guidance above is based, will also ensure compliance with future REF Open Access policies.
UKRI’ s new Open Access policy came into effect on 01 April 2022 and applies to the following types of publications, when they are required to acknowledge funding from UKRI or any of its constituent councils:
- In-Scope peer-reviewed research articles, including reviews and conference papers, that are accepted for final publication in either a journal, conference proceeding with an International Standards Serial Number (ISSN), or publishing platform, and which have been submitted for publication on or after 1 April 2022
- In-scope Monographs, book chapters and edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024 as defined at Annex 1 of the policy
For more information, please consult the UKRI open access policy and he Research Management Administration System and Open Access section on in.beds.
Research repositories, also known as open archives, may include theses, research papers, conference papers and books. Research articles can be deposited as pre-prints, post-prints or both. These repositories should comply with the OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) protocol so that documents can be located from any internet access point.
The Open Access reading list provides links to the key research repositories. CORE is a useful service aggregating content from many repositories.
Subject repositories are organised around a discipline so will contain research material from a number of different institutions.
The Open Access reading list provides links to the key subject repositories.
Institutional repositories contain research material which will normally have been self-archived by the individual researchers involved, e.g. the University of Bedfordshire repository. Universities across the world are setting up their own repositories so that the output of their researchers can be made available to anyone.
CORE aggregates institutional repositories from around the world, so that you can search them all at once.
If you are a member of UoB staff and you publish an article, book, book chapter, conference article or any other research output, we want to pu it in our repository if possible.
Please follow the guidance provided on in.beds to set up your account and submit your research to the institutional repository via the University's Research Management System RMAS.
If you have any questions or problems contact oap@beds.ac.uk for help.
Directories exist to facilitate access to all repositories wherever they are based and whatever the subject.
The Open Access reading list provides links to the key directories.
Tools exist in order to search these Open Access repositories. The major examples are provided on the OA reading list.
There are a number of plug-ins (alternatively known as web browser extensions) which you can drag and drop onto your toolbar. These will identify search results where there is an OA full-text available. They are easy to use and work very well with Google Scholar and other large search engines and databases. Click on the links to EndNote Click and Unpaywall to find out more, and to install the browser extensions.
Other than repositories, the main vehicle for reducing the barriers to research results has been the introduction of online open access journals. Unlike the traditional system of financing journals, the costs are not paid by the reader (or their library), so they are free for anyone to read. They are still peer-reviewed and quality-controlled in the same way as traditional journals, and many journals are now hybrid - they have some open access articles, and some that you have to be a subscriber to read, but all go through the same submission process.
Thousands of open access journals are available via DISCOVER and the Library Catalogue and via the reading lists
Open access books have lagged behind journals but they are increasing. There are open access textbooks and monographs available, and sometimes individual chapters might be made available in repositories.
Links to OA book directories are listed on the reading list. We also make OA books available via DISCOVER and the library catalogue.
Many universities make theses and dissertations freely available and OATD provides a searchable index. You can find the University of Bedfordshire Institutional Repositories on the reading list.
Ethos is the collection of theses held by the British Library.
Open Access Agreements
The University of Bedfordshire is participating in the Wiley, Springer, Elsevier and Cambridge Core agreements. This enables academics and researchers to publish in the participating journals at no cost to the author as the Article Processing Charge (APC) is paid for as part of the journal collection subscription paid for by the University.
How to publish Open Access with Wiley
Read the full details from Wiley
UoB authors can publish OA in 2 ways:
- In hybrid Wiley journals
- In fully OA Wiley journals (new agreement announced to include Gold OA journals).
Process:
- Your manuscript must have been accepted on or after 1 January 2024
- You must be the corresponding author
- Your article must be primary research or a review article
- Read the instructions on how to publish in any of Wiley's fully gold Open Access journals [PDF]. You can check the full journal title list [XLSX]
- Read the instructions on how to publish in any of Wiley’s hybrid (subscription) journals [PDF] that offer OnlineOpen. You can check the full journal title list [XLSX]
- Wiley also enable you to check the open access availability for a specific journal, by using their Author Compliance Tool
How to publish Open Access with SpringerOpen
Read the full details from SpringerOpen
University of Bedfordshire is participating in the UK Read and Publish (SpringerOpen) agreement. This enables UoB staff and researchers to publish articles open access - at no cost - see the full list of journals
Process:
- You must be the corresponding author
- Check the instructions on how to publish in Springer Open Choice
How to publish Open Access with Elsevier
Elsevier and Jisc have established an agreement to enable enable open access publishing. When publishing in eligible Elsevier journals, authors will be able to choose to publish open access at no additional cost to the author.
This agreement is effective until the end of December 2024.
Read the full details from Elsevier
Once your article has been accepted for publication in a participating journal, you will receive an email containing a link to the “post-acceptance author journey”. Upon selecting your publishing options, your affiliation will be validated by your institution, and you will be informed if the APC will be covered by the agreement.
How to publish Open Access in Cambridge Core
Cambridge Core allow Open Access publishing in more than 350 journal titles.
Read the full details from Cambridge Core
There is a step-by-step guide [PDF], explaining how to publish your article Open Access.
If you have any further questions or need support submitting your publications, please contact:
Jo.Myhill@beds.ac.uk or Adele.Robinson@beds.ac.uk or your Academic Liaison Librarian
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