Library Research Services is excited to announce a series of informal Pop-up Sessions across campus in November and December. These sessions are designed to showcase the wide range of services we offer. We warmly invite academics and researchers to join us with any questions they may have about open access publishing, data management, or any specific open research queries. Below, you will find a full list of our locations and dates.
Tuesday, 5th November, 12pm-2pm: Medical School Foyer
Tuesday, 12th November, 12pm-2pm: Henry Daysh Café Space
Wednesday, 11th December, 12pm-2pm: The Atrium, Urban Sciences Building
Don’t worry if you miss us this time—you’ll have the opportunity to speak to us again in the new year. You can also contact us anytime at lrs@ncl.ac.uk
The updated guidance around the UKRI open access policy for long-form publications is now available, and the Library Research Services team are here to provide support with the policy and publishing open access.
As detailed in our previous post, the UKRI policy update applies to monographs, book chapters and edited collections that acknowledge UKRI funding, and are published on or after 1 January 2024, where:
The final Version of Record or Author’s Accepted Manuscript must be free to view and download via an online publication platform, publisher’s website, or institutional or subject repository within a maximum of 12 months of publication.
Images, illustrations, tables and other supporting content should be included in the open access version, where possible.
The open access version of the publication must have a Creative Commons licence, with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence preferred. An Open Government Licence is also permitted. (This requirement does not apply to third party materials included in the publication).
UKRI expects publications acknowledging their funding to be made open access, although they do allow some exemptions, which we are happy to discuss.
UKRI have a dedicated fund to support open access costs for long-form publications within scope of the policy, where publication via a green, free, route to open access is not an eligible option for authors. Applications for this fund are made via the library.
Our UKRI Policy for long-form publications page includes a summary of the policy, how grant holders can comply, details of exemptions and what funds are available to support open access publication. The page also has a link to the form we require to submit an application to UKRI on your behalf or if you want to discuss your options.
Library Research Services will be attending some faculty meetings, throughout March to May, to discuss what the policy means for authors, and how the library and UKRI will be supporting this. Alongside this, we will be holding a couple of webinars focused on the policy, along with general Open Access Support sessions for any open access queries. We are also available for 1-2-1 sessions as required.
If you have any questions or concerns about the policy, and how this might affect any current or future publications, please contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk.
Are you looking for advice and information on open access or managing publications? Come to one of our monthly drop-in sessions and meet members of the Library Research Services team, who will be happy to answer questions on:
Publishing open access
Understanding research funder policy requirements
Copyright and licencing issues relating to your publications
Uploading your publications to MyImpact.
Whether you’re a seasoned researcher, student or simply keen to explore the possibilities within open access, this session offers a welcoming space to ask questions, gain insights and delve deeper into the realm of open access.
Each session will focus on a specific area of open access including an overview of library research services. These sessions are as follows:
Since beginning implementation of Newcastle University’s Research Publications and Copyright Policy in January 2023, the open research landscape has continued to transform. Library Research Services have been integrating our RPCP policy into open research publishing practices across the university. We have been doing this by supporting researchers and professional services staff while monitoring the uptake using our research support systems. Before we dive into the progress made over the past 9 months, we would first like to extend a thank you to our staff and students for recognising the benefits of the new policy and embracing change, and retaining their rights to publish their work where they see fit.
We have made 1,533* articles open access via the gold (paid) route and 388* available using the green (free) route. 238* of the publications made available through green open access were because of our policy with more research articles being accepted for publication containing the statement.
Implementing the policy required extensive planning and coordination. We developed a communications plan outlining the various media and methods we could use including channels, time frames and promotional material to convey the policy clearly and effectively. We added a web page within Library Research Services detailing the policy, a step-by-step guide for researchers and professional services staff and a list of FAQs to pre-empt and answer any questions or concerns they may have.
We are grateful to be part of the N8 Research Partnership which has allowed us to work together while launching similar policies around rights retention. The partnership enabled us to anticipate and tackle the issues we faced as a collective while allowing us to benchmark our progress with other research-intensive universities across the North of England. We liaised with our colleagues in Research, Strategy and Development to discuss how our policy aligned with our Ownership, Protection and Exploitation of Intellectual Property for Employees and the Open Access Policy Statement.
The first practical steps we took towards implementation was to contact over 150 publishers informing them of our policy. The publishers were based on a list from Edinburgh University and adapted to include those our researchers publish with. Once we were in possession of our letter, written and signed by Legal Services and N8 Rights Retention statement, we began contacting publishers as a courtesy.
The next stage involved informing our authors, we contacted each school asking to come along and present the policy to interested parties and we received a very welcoming response. The information was then fed through to various teams within the university by Professional Services staff. By speaking to staff directly, we were able to field questions and concerns to make incorporating the new policy as seamless as possible in the attempt to minimise the impact this would have on our academic’s workload. We set up Open Access Zoom Drop-In sessions to give the opportunity for researchers and members of staff to ask questions surrounding the policy, ask general open access queries and offer advice on good research practice.
As we develop and support open research while continuing to advocate for our research publications policy, the N8 have proposed a webinar for 23rd October 2023 at 10.15am (BST) to give the opportunity for those universities who launched their policies to present on their experience, the barriers they faced and offering advice to other institutions wishing to embark on their own rights retention journey. Details of how to sign up are posted in our Library Calendar.
*Figures taken from CRIS (MyImpact) (Jan 2023-Sep 2023)
