Following the success of our Open Access Support Sessions earlier in the year, our monthly informal sessions will be returning from September.
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, these sessions offer 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 and how this relates to open access:
In April 2023, the Library was awarded a small grant after applying to the QR Enhancing Research Culture (ERC) Project fund. This project application aimed to address a gap in University support for open access publishing. The funds requested were used to pay article processing charges (APCs) for papers published in fully open access journals. Relevant articles were either the outcome of non-funded research activity (i.e. research that has not been funded through research council, industry or charity funding assigned to a specific project) or those that did not receive financial support for open access publishing from their associated funder (e.g. where there is no dedicated policy or funds for publishing open access). The aim was to remove a financial barrier to publishing research, giving authors more choice in where to publish their work while retaining their copyright.
Open publishing of research outputs increases visibility and accessibility of the research, which in turn can foster wider collaboration as more researchers are able to connect with each other’s work. Additionally, the wider public also gains access to the work, which is particularly significant for publicly funded activity. This forms part of the University’s approach to Open Research, encouraging researchers to incorporate open research practices into their work to make their processes and outputs more transparent and reproducible where possible. Open Research is a Top Priority Project in Newcastle’s Research Culture Programme and you can find out more about the broader open research activities by visiting the Library’s Open Research pages.
Currently, Newcastle University supports the publication of open access research by covering publishing costs through several publisher agreements and block grant funding received from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) (specifically for papers acknowledging these funders). Other funders, such as National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), allow open access costs to be charged direct to the grant or by applying to the funder for associated costs. The Newcastle University Research Publications and Copyright Policy also enables immediate, at no cost, open access of the author accepted manuscript (the version post peer-review but before final publication) for articles published in hybrid (subscription) journals, where readers pay a fee to view the non-open access published content. However, publishing for non-funded research in fully open access journals currently sits outside of these routes. Non-funded research makes up a relatively small portion of our publications, however, periodically the Open Access team within Library Research Services are approached by authors in need of such provision. After consultation with authors that the team have previously been unable to assist, we proposed the pilot scheme to trial a possible solution to this publishing barrier.
The Open Access Funding for Non-funded Research (Pilot) went live in April 2023 and was advertised University wide. Applications were received from across all faculties and reviewed by faculty representatives, with subsequent publication payments organised by the Library. Applications closed in June 2023, which was earlier than expected as ERC project funds were rapidly allocated. In the 3-month application period, the Library received 14 applications (Table 1), 10 of which were eligible for funding, with 9 being accepted. Applications not approved for this scheme were eligible for open access publication via publisher agreements, block grants or faculty funding. All 9 accepted articles were peer-reviewed, and published, in a range of journals from BMJ, Elsevier, JMIR, MDPI, Society of Neuroscience and Springer Nature (see the list at the end).
Applications
Total
By Faculty
Medical Science
Humanities and Social Sciences
Science, Agriculture & Engineering
Number of applications
14
7
3
4
Applications awarded open access funding
9
4
2
3
Table 1. Open Access funding application numbers by faculty
The pilot scheme was successful in demonstrating the need for financial support for some open access publications as these publications may not have been possible in the chosen journals without such provision. Feedback on the scheme (received July 2024) from the successful applicants to the fund was positive, see what they had to say below.
Open Access funding recipient 1:
“The OA process was extremely straight forward with timely communication and information to provide was not too onerous.
The funding allowed us to publish in a highly relevant Open journal in very good time from conducting the work. We have had much correspondence about our article since and shared this internationally. Our work is in medical education research and as such we don’t often have large pots of money that we can use to allow us to publish OA so this fund was crucial to us being able to do that.
I envisage a great need for this funding and if a similar fund was continued that would be highly important to driving our publication presence forward particularly in areas of education and also public/patient/community involvement in research where OA is essential.”
Open Access funding recipient 2:
“The funding and the way it was managed was very helpful and meant we were able to publish in a high profile journal […].
I know a few people in my networks have let me know they read it partly because it was in that particular journal and downloaded the open source data attached to it so far, and again because of the journal being known, it was identified and quoted in [an] online news site […].
Overall I’d say being able to publish it using the open access fund has increased its impact and been very positive! It would certainly be very useful for future publications too.”
Open Access funding recipient 3:
“Open Access funding enabled me to publish my study in a good quality journal. Since it is fully open access, I have got reasonable number of citations within the first year after publication. My study is being recognised by many researchers all around the world and they even contribute to their own research. I would not have done it without the support of this fund by the University. I appreciate this support and want this chance to continue in the future because it is really important for a researcher that their research reaches out to everyone without any restriction.”
In 2018 an Open Access publishing initiative ‘Plan S’ was launched, supported by an international consortium of research funding and performing organisations (cOAlition S). According to the Plan S principles of transformative arrangements (TAs) “all scholarly publications on the results from research funded by public or private grants provided by national, regional and international research councils and funding bodies, must be published in Open Access Journals, on Open Access Platforms, or made immediately available through Open Access Repositories without embargo”. With hybrid titles moving to fully open access, the removal of financial support for TAs from 2025 and uncertainties in funding in general, we predict that interest in a central fund to support the publication of non-funded research will continue.
One learning outcome from the scheme was the acknowledgement that the QR ERC Project fund is not appropriate for this type of support due to the nature of publications. The time lag between paper acceptance, publication and invoicing can vary massively (the average time from OA funding application to publication invoice for the pilot project was 107 days) and, in many cases, does not fit within the financial time restrictions of this annual funding. The Library continues to review how we can financially support our non-funded authors, in conjunction with all authors, to be able to publish in their journals of choice and share our research more widely.
Benthem de Grave et al. 2023 Smartphone apps for food purchase choices: scoping review of designs, opportunities, and challenges Journal of Medical Internet Research26 e45904 https://doi.org/10.2196/45904
Brown et al. 2023 Genetic analysis of blood molecular phenotypes reveals common properties in the regulatory networks affecting complex traits Nature Communications14 5062 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40569-3
Cayci et al. 2023 Practices and perceptions of community pharmacists in the management of atopic dermatitis: systematic review and thematic synthesis MDPI Healthcare11 2159 https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11152159
Germann & Baker 2023 Testing a novel wearable device for motor recovery of the elbow extensor triceps brachii in chronic spinal cord injury eNeuro10 ENEURO.0077-23.2023 https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0077-23.2023
Law et al. 2024 The development and productivity of a measure for identifying low language abilities in children aged 24–36 months BMC Pediatrics23 495 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-023-04079-x
Tullo et al. 2023 Lost in translation: how can education about dementia be effectively integrated into medical school contexts? A realist synthesis BMJ Open13 e077028 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-077028
Yadav et al. 2023 Effective battery charging system using step voltage and step duty sizebased MPPT controller for solar PV system Energy Reports10 744 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2023.07.033
List of articles published as a result of the QR ERC Project fund
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)
The N8 Research Partnership has released an important statement which outlines its stance on the importance of researchers being able to retain their original rights when their work is published in a journal. Newcastle University is an N8 member and has been involved with the planning and coordination of this initiative which seeks to support all N8 academics if they find themselves caught between funder and publisher policies.
Newcastle University introduced a new Research Publications and Copyright policy in August 2022 and in tandem with the other N8 universities the policy is designed to ensure that Newcastle authors are in a position to follow good open research practice and comply with changing funder requirements around open access to research outputs. It does this by recommending that authors make their work open access via use of a Rights Retention Statement (RRS) and self-archiving into the institutional repository. More detailed guidance on complying with the new policy can be accessed on the Library Research Services web pages.
As part of this initiative, the University’s Legal Services department has sent a Notice of Grant of Licence by post and email to over 150 publishers to which the majority of University staff submit their work. This letter serves as formal notice to publishers of the new policy and is designed to ensure that Newcastle academic staff are fully supported with regard to retaining the rights to their work. Over the coming weeks and months the Library will be delivering a programme of resources and training events to support colleagues in transitioning to the new policy. If you have any questions or concerns then please consult the FAQs or contact the open access team.
