University implements new policy on 'open access'
Monday, 29 September 2014
From 1st October the University will implement HEFCE's policy on open access in the next Research Excellence Framework (REF). This will increase the visibility and availability of Reading's top research publications. The policy affects journal articles and conference proceedings that may be submitted in the Outputs component. To be eligible for submission, author final manuscripts must have been deposited in a repository on acceptance for publication. Whilst HEFCE's policy applies from 1st April 2016, HEFCE strongly recommends early implementation.
The University is therefore applying this policy to outputs that meet the following two criteria:
- all journal articles, and conference proceedings with an ISSN
- AND which are accepted for publication after 1st October 2014
Authors should deposit their author final manuscripts in the University's institutional repository, CentAUR www.reading.ac.uk/centaur, as soon as they are accepted for publication. The HEFCE policy allows repositories to respect publishers' embargo conditions and to restrict access if required; therefore deposit should not be delayed or avoided.
In most cases a delay will make articles or conference proceedings ineligible for submission to the REF. If deposit on acceptance for publication is not possible, authors should contact centaur@reading.ac.uk as soon as possible for advice about allowable exceptions.
Guidance for Reading authors is on the University's open access web pages.
If colleagues have any queries or would like a member of the University's Open Access Implementation Group to attend a School or Departmental meeting, please contact centaur@reading.ac.uk
The full policy details are in Policy for open access in the post-2014 Research Excellence Framework