The
following optimal wording for a National Policy on Open Access for
[country-name] is recommended:
(1) requires electronic copies of any research
papers that have been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed
journal, and
are supported in whole or in part by Government funding, to be
deposited into
an institutional digital repository immediately upon acceptance for
publication. This requirement will apply to all grants awarded after
[date-1]
and, from [date-2], to all grants regardless of award date;
(2) encourages Government Grant Holders to
retain ownership of the copyright of published papers where possible;
(3) encourages Government Grant Holders to
publish in a suitable Open Access Journal where one exists; the
Government will
cover the publication costs, if any.
FAQs
What
are the benefits to researchers of Open Access?
As
authors, researchers benefit because their
research papers are given a much wider dissemination and can be read
without
restriction by anyone with Internet access. This increases the impact
of their
research. Indeed, evidence is accumulating to show that open access
articles
are cited 25-250% more than non-open access articles from the same
journal and
year1. As readers, researchers
benefit because they will increasingly be able to access and use the
full text
of all the research published in their area, not just the research
available to
them via the subscriptions their institution can afford.
What
are the benefits to [country-name]?
First,
[country-name's] research will be more accessible to global
researchers, hence
better known and more widely used and cited. The prestige of
high-profile
[country-name] researchers will increase; even lesser-known researchers
will
gain more exposure and impact. Second, all [country-name] research will
be open
to all [country-name] entrepreneurs and the general public with
Internet
access. This will be beneficial both commercially and culturally.
Third,
access, usage and citation data on this research will increasingly
become
available and analysable to help shape researchers',
institutions' and nations'
strategies and policies.
The final manuscript of the author's research paper should be deposited. This is the
author's own final draft, as accepted for journal publication,
including all
modifications resulting from the peer-review process. (In addition,
depositing
pre-peer-review preprint drafts is welcome, if the author desires early
priority and peer feedback, but this is of course not a requirement. In
some
cases publishers may permit their own published version, either in
SGML/XML or
PDF, to be deposited as well; this too is welcome, but not a
requirement.)
An
electronic version of the author's final manuscript
resulting from research supported, in whole or in part, by Government
funding
must be deposited immediately upon
acceptance for publication.
Authors will
of course still decide in which journal they
choose to publish their research papers. They will merely have to
ensure that a
copy of the final, peer-reviewed paper is deposited in their
institutional
repository immediately upon acceptance for publication.
How
can I find out whether my journal has a policy compliant with
depositing my
manuscript in my institutional repository?
You
should consult the individual journal's policy which is given at:
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php
or at http://romeo.eprints.org/publishers.html
How
do I ensure contractual compliance?
Authors'
contractual obligations for receiving Government funding to conduct
their
research pre-date any contractual agreement with the journal in which
the
resulting research is published (apart from the brief transitional
period when
this new policy is first announced). Hence authors can ensure in
advance that
any later contractual agreement for publishing their research complies
with the
author's earlier contractual agreement for funding their
research, informing
the journal that they are under an existing obligation to deposit in an
open
access repository. The Government's Grant Conditions are
mandatory and binding
on institutions, grant holders, and all others supported by a grant.
What
is an open access journal?
An
open access journal makes articles it publishes freely accessible online2.
Some open access journals also cover their costs by charging the
author's
institution or funder for publication. The Government will cover such
open
access publication costs where needed.
What
kind of papers should I deposit?
The
policy applies to peer-reviewed, original (primary) research
publications and
reviews that have been supported, in whole or in part, by Government
funding.
The policy does not apply to book chapters, editorials, or book
reviews.
Do
I need to deposit my paper if the journal publishing my research
already
provides immediate open access to my articles?
Deposit
is not required but is still recommended even if a manuscript has been
accepted
by an open access journal. Your institution will still wish to have
your work
deposited in its repository to enable it to maintain a compete record
of institutional
research output.
1Ten-Year
Cross-Disciplinary Comparison of the Growth of Open Access and How it
Increases
Research Citation Impact. IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin, Vol. 28 No. 4,
December 2005
http://sites.computer.org/debull/A05dec/hajjem.pdf
http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11688/
2
Directory of Open Access Journals www.doaj.org