Open Access publishing – Opening Research

Advice on running an Open Access journal

Gabriel is an Open Research Champion for School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics. After attending an academic conference in Barcelona we provided some external funds to support a short extension to visit a colleague at Universitat Pompeu Fabra to discuss running an Open Access journal. Here’s what he learned…

In my visit to Barcelona, I integrated a conversation about Open Access and Open Research with Professor Louise McNally, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Semantics & Pragmatics, a leading Open Access journal for semantics and pragmatics research.

“Semantics and Pragmatics is a fully open access journal. All content is freely and immediately accessible to readers under a liberal CC-BY license. The journal is supported by the Linguistic Society of America, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Texas. Authors do not pay publication charges (APCs) nor submission charges. Authors retain full copyright and all rights of reuse.”

https://semprag.org/index.php/sp/about

I wanted to hold a meeting with her as a fellow linguist to discuss their approach to open access, since in a couple of months I will become Co-Editor-in-Chief of Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, the leading journal in linguistics and a pioneering Open Access journal in the field. I wanted to benefit from her experience and expertise in this area. As a result of our conversation, I got some pieces of advice as to what areas are key when leading an Open Access journal.

The main component is sustainability in several respects (financial, production, administrative). In Louise’s opinion, it is fundamental to think ahead especially to editorial/management transitions, such as the ones I am currently involved in. In this regard, one has to make sure that there is time to familiarize new editors with how things have been done, so that any major policy decisions that are made can be discussed with them.

Further, it is very important to be proactive in that one should take advantage of whatever venues one has to explain to libraries, funding agencies, among others. Importantly, efforts should be made to get the home institutions of the editorial team to support the journal. In this sense, this is a joint effort to ensure that the journal survives in the medium to long term.

More generally, what this means is that the work that is done needs to be visible. Thus, it is key to further promote and support open access publishing models such as Diamond Open Access and Subscribe to Open.

Overall, these efforts constitute a very specific set of efforts to promote Open Research as related to Open Access journals, which, ultimately, shape the future of linguistics as a field where knowledge and ideas have the opportunity to flow freely—not being tied to paywalls. I will certainly integrate all these pieces of advice in my new role!

Outdoor Singing in Modern Britain – Latest UKRI funded open access book

Book cover for Cambridge Elements: Histories of Emotions and the Senses. Outdoor Singing in Modern Britain. Abbi Flint and Clare Hickman

Outdoor Singing in Modern Britain – A Sensory and Emotional History by Abbi Flint and Clare Hickman, Reader in Environmental and Medical History at Newcastle University, has been published open access in the Cambridge University Press series Elements in Histories of Emotions and the Senses.

The work brings together historical sources and contemporary experiences to explore the interplay between singing, sociality, body, and meaning in the English landscape over the past century. It explores the connections between air and song and between singing and movement, through the context of the early twentieth century open-air recreation movement. This is supplemented by recent literature on singing and wellbeing, and the experiences of a contemporary walking choir captured via interviews in the field. The authors argue that outdoor singing has been part of co-constructed soundscapes of the modern English leisure landscape, and ask what this meant for those who participated in collective open-air singing and rambling. They explore how open-air singing connected with conceptions of the countryside, with a sense of fellow-feeling, and how this might have both reified and challenged normative ways of being in landscapes.

This is the fifth book published at Newcastle University as a result of the UKRI open access policy for long-form publications, with open access costs covered by UKRI funding.

Of the experience, Clare Hickman (co-author) had the following comment:

[T]he process was very straightforward and quick, and it is good to know that non-traditional monographs are included in the UKRI policy.

For further details of the previous books published through this funding scheme, follow the links to the published works and related blog posts:

The UKRI open access policy aims to ensure that findings from research funded by the public through UKRI can be freely accessed, used and built upon. The policy applies to peer-reviewed research articles and long-form outputs, namely book chapters, monographs and edited collections.

Full details of the UKRI open access policy and how Library Research Services can support making outputs open access can be found on our UKRI Policy for long-form publications page.

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.

Latest UKRI funded open access book published

Sustainable Food Consumption in China: Changing Foodscapes, Values, and Practices by Alex Hughes, Shuru Zhong, Mike Crang, Guojun Zeng, Fernando Fastoso, Hector Gonzalez Jimenez and Bob Doherty, has been published open access by Routledge, as part of their Critical Food Studies series.

Sustainable Food Consumption in China investigates the current and potential roles of food consumption to address sustainability challenges in China.

Focusing on the megacity of Guangzhou, it looks at sustainability and food from the perspectives of government, commercial, and third sector actors, and through the lived experiences of consumers. It charts the rapidly transforming landscapes of retail across urban China and the ways they are shaping and are shaped by everyday food consumption practices. Using a multi-method research approach of quantitative and ethnographic data, it provides readers with a rich and comprehensive understanding of the relationships and tensions between contemporary practices of food consumption and pressing sustainability challenges. It unpacks the complex foodscape in contemporary Chinese cities, from traditional wet markets to online deliveries, from supermarkets to farmers markets and alternative food providers, to understand the values and practices promoting and hindering sustainability in food consumption.

The book is intended for academics from advanced undergraduate level through to Masters, postgraduates and scholars across key social science disciplines including Geography, Sociology, Anthropology, and Business, and internationally given the global interest in the focus on China.

This is the third book published at Newcastle as a result of the UKRI open access policy for long-form publications, with open access costs covered by UKRI funding. You can read the other books:

The UKRI open access policy aims to ensure that findings from research funded by the public through UKRI can be freely accessed, used and built upon. The policy was updated at the beginning of 2024 from previously focusing on peer-reviewed research articles to now include long-form outputs, namely book chapters, monographs and edited collections.

Full details of the UKRI open access policy and how we in Library Research Services can support you to publish open access can be found on our UKRI Policy for long-form publications page.

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.

Jisc Next Generation Open Access Strategy

Jisc has embarked on a series of negotiations with the five largest academic publishers: Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Wiley and Sage. The existing Transformative Agreements (TAs) with these publishers all come to end on 31^st December 2025. Jisc will negotiate with all five at the same time and with the same set of requirements that were developed after extensive consultation with the HE Sector. Jisc anticipates “that this approach will allow the sector to return greater value from the £112 million currently spent on these agreements, reducing costs and ensuring fairer, more sustainable terms.”

In addition, Jisc aims to “align expenditure with the sector’s broader strategic goals, supporting research, teaching and student outcomes. This will help shift away from unsustainable models based upon per article charges including Article Processing Charges (APCs), paving the way for more equitable, open access publishing practices.”

Negotiation aims

Reduce costs to alleviate financial pressure on institutions
Move away from volume-driven models to focus on fair, sustainable approaches that increase participation in research and close the access and participation gap between the NHS, government, industry, and institutions
Help the sector support the Government’s priorities and achieve greater economic and societal benefits, support teaching, learning and drive research collaborations

Timeline

January 2025: Publishers informed of approach
March – June 2025: Negotiations in progress
July – August 2025: Consultations
September – October 2025: Consult and agree sector walkaway strategies
November – December 2025: Launch and orders placed or proceed with walkaway strategies

The overriding aim for the negotiations is to achieve a total reduction in spend compared to 2025 across the Big 5 publishers of between 5% and 15%. To give an idea of the potential savings involved for Newcastle University, our current spend with the Big 5 publishers is c£2.5M. A 5% saving would represent £128k, 10% £257k, and 15% £385k. At a time when we can expect no additional resources to invest in collection building to support new or expanding programmes, any funds released for reinvestment through securing better deals would be welcome.

The Library is already analysing the value for money of the existing deals, and assessing the potential impact of “walking away” from any of the agreements, which includes taking into account the internal administrative costs of managing selective access to individual journals.

The Library will provide updates on the progress of the negotiations to the University via the Library Research Services web pages, and deliver briefing sessions where appropriate. If you would like more information please contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk.

John Williams

New book published under the UKRI open access policy

Cover image of monograph entitled Diaspora Reads: Community, Identity, and Russian Literaturocentrism

Diaspora Reads: Community, Identity, and Russian Literaturocentrism, written by Dr Angelos Theocharis from the Newcastle University School of Arts & Cultures, has been published open access (OA), by Modern Humanities Research Association/Legenda https://www.mhra.org.uk/publications/Diaspora-Reads

Diaspora Reads explores the role of literature and reading practices in the community life of Russian-speaking migrants in Britain. Russophone culture abounds with myths about the special mission of literature and the writer in society. The broader cultural myth of Russian literaturocentrism encompasses the sacralisation of highbrow literature, the idolisation of authors as heroes and martyrs, and the idealisation of avid readership. In the diaspora, literaturocentrism takes on a new form, retaining elements of the Russian and Soviet tradition while primarily responding to the needs of migrant readers.

Following the discussions, games, and celebrations of a community book club in London, Diaspora Reads demonstrates how collective reading enables migrants to shape shared cultural identities, forge communities, build a long-distance relationship with their homelands, and become members of a global network of readers.

Angelos Theocharis is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Department of Media, Culture, Heritage at Newcastle University. Diaspora Reads is his first monograph.

This is the second book published at Newcastle as a result of the UKRI open access policy for long-form publications, with open access costs covered by UKRI funding. You can read more about the first edited book Pushing the Paradigm of Global Water Security, published in October 2024.

Full details of the UKRI open access policy and how we in Library Research Services can support you to publish open access can be found on our UKRI Policy for long-form publications page.

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.

First book published under the UKRI open access policy

We are very excited to share that ‘Pushing the Paradigm of Global Water Security’, co-edited by Victoria Anker, Rachael Maysels and Maria Valasia Peppa, from the Newcastle University School of Engineering, has been published open access (OA), by IWA Publishing. https://doi.org/10.2166/9781789062540

This book brings together early career researchers, non-governmental organisations and industry practitioners, indigenous and local communities, and government agency workers to interrogate the concept of water security. Most notably, the authors push for the radical acceptance of the indivisibility of environmental conservation, social stability, and economic vitality. Essential reading for water practitioners, policy makers, and multilateral organisations in the development sector, it is also a must-read for doctoral and master’s students working at intersections of water, and undergraduates who want to challenge their subject-specific perspectives on water and push disciplinary boundaries.

This is the first book published at Newcastle as a result of the UKRI open access policy for long-form publications, with open access costs covered by UKRI funding.

Open publishing of research increases the visibility and accessibility of the research, increasing the potential reach of the work to audiences online anywhere in the world, without the need to pay to read. Books published open access receive more views, with OA books considered to have ten times more downloads than non-OA books and more than double the number of citations [1]. They also have a higher geographic diversity of usage and reach more countries [1]. Research has also shown that OA publication has the potential to increase digital and print revenue, depending on the sales models used [2].

Comments from Victoria Anker (editor):

In the current academic climate, there is an expectation that our outputs will be made open access – and this should be standard for any research funded by the UK government. This book represents a new way of thinking about water security, which is designed to be useful to people outside of the academic sphere. These sorts of organisations don’t usually have access to traditional academic journals. As such, we are particularly grateful to Newcastle University for enabling open access through [the UKRI open access fund], which may not otherwise have been possible.

Comments from Wegayehy Asfaw (contributor):

This achievement means a lot to us, and I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the editors and contributors who have worked tirelessly to bring this project to fruition.

The contribution from the Early Career Network is truly remarkable, and I believe it will have a significant impact across disciplines and around the globe. Together, we are addressing critical challenges and proposing innovative solutions for water security.

In summing up this achievement, Wegayehy Asfaw said

Thank you all for your hard work and dedication. Let’s celebrate this milestone and continue making a difference!

Comments from Catherine Flynn (ESRC)

The Early Career Network brings hope for a bright future, not only in water security, but in international development and international partnerships.

Full details of the UKRI open access policy and how we in Library Research Services can support you to publish open access can be found on our UKRI Policy for long-form publications page.

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.

[1] Neylon C, Ozaygen A, Montgomery L, Huang C-K (Karl), Pyne R, Lucraft M & Emery C 2021 More readers in more places: the benefits of open access for scholarly books Insights: the UKSG journal 34 (1) p 27 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.558

[2] Brown L, Dayan M, McLaughlin B, Schonfeld R C, Sherer J & van Rijn E 2023 Print Revenue and Open Access Monographs: A University Press Study Ithaka S+R DOI: https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.319642

UKRI Open Access Policy for long-form publications – August 2024 update

The UKRI open access policy for long-form publications has been in effect since 1^st January 2024 (see our previous post for further details). Our dedicated UKRI Policy for long-form publications page contains a summary of the policy and how the Library Research Services (LRS) team can support with publishing open access.

Since the launch of this addition of the open access policy, LRS have been on hand to answer queries about publishing monographs, edited collections and chapters open access, in particular relating to UKRI funded works, advising on publishing routes and how to comply with policy, where appropriate.

Throughout the first half of the 2024, we have visited three schools, hosted five drop-in support sessions, and presented an in-depth webinar to share the UKRI policy and the support we offer. We will continue to share details of our services in future workshops and presentations, and we are always available for 1-2-1 sessions for anyone who would like to know further details.

Following the policy update, we have received numerous queries about publishing books open access, from across all the faculties. They have covered a range of book types and publishers, including Bloomsbury, Boydell and Brewer, Bristol University Press, IWA Publishing, Manchester University Press, and Routledge. Where appropriate, we have advised on the different open access options available, such as publishing the final output open access or self-archiving the accepted manuscript.

Of the six applications received that acknowledge UKRI funding, are within the scope of the policy, and require funding to cover a book processing charge, all have been awarded funding from UKRI to cover the open access publishing costs. The funding is reserved until the books are published, at which time UKRI release the funds and complete the process.

We expect the first of the UKRI funded outputs to be published by September 2024, details of which will follow once available.

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.

UKRI Open Access Policy for long-form publications – March 2024 update

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.

Dates for your diary:

20 March 2024: UKRI Policy for Long-form Publications 13.00-13.45

22 May 2024: UKRI Policy for Long-form Publications 13.00-13.45

18 July 2024: Open Access Support session: focus on UKRI Policy for Long-form Publications 13.00-13.45

N8 Research Partnership and Rights Retention

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.

Newcastle University and Springer Nature

The “read and publish” agreement between academic publisher Springer Nature and UK Universities was due for renewal by the end of 2022. Discussions were ongoing throughout the year but a new agreement was not reached by 31^st December 2022. We are now in a grace period of access into February 2023 while negotiations continue.

What is being negotiated and why is it important?

Newcastle University’s 2022 subscription to Springer Nature content enabled University members to read Springer Nature (SN) journals online and also publish open access articles with costs covered in more than 2,000 Springer hybrid journals. A new agreement must seek to encompass the whole Springer Nature Portfolio – Springer Compact, Nature journals, Palgrave journals, and their fully open access journals – enabling continued read access to SN online and allowing UK authors to publish open access in SN journals at no extra cost to themselves.

The HE sector has noted that subscription and Article Processing Charge (APC) expenditure with SN accounts for an increasing proportion of library subscription and publishing costs. Total expenditure by UK universities now exceeds £30 million. These costs are unsustainable.

Negotiating criteria

Newcastle University supports Jisc’s criteria for negotiations. A new agreement must:

Reduce and constrain costs
Provide full and immediate open access publishing
Aid compliance with funder open access requirements
Be transparent, fair, and reasonable
Deliver improvements in service, workflows, and discovery

What happens if an agreement cannot be reached?

We are hopeful that an acceptable agreement can be reached but if either side walks away from the negotiations we have plans in place to allow continued access to SN content online and open access publishing.

Read Access: We have substantial online backfiles to which we would retain access. These would continue to be accessible via LibrarySearch for you to discover and read. We would not have access to new content from SN, and in these instances where we do not have a subscription we will help you get the article through an inter-library loan or other routes. The exact process will depend on ongoing work, so look out for further communications about the details.

Publishing: We encourage open access publishing to allow wider discovery, access and re-use of research. It is also a requirement of many funders that outputs are published open access if acknowledging their grants. UKRI and Wellcome Trust have provided grants to institutions to cover the costs of APCs but they are no longer willing to pay for open access in hybrid journals, which charge for subscriptions and APCs, unless there is a read and publish (transformative) agreement in place or the journal is a transformative journal.

It is therefore the case that to continue publishing in SN journals and publish open access you should apply the University’s Research Publications and Copyright Policy. By including the rights retention statement in your article you can publish the author-accepted manuscript in the institutional repository ePrints and repository staff will make it available upon publication in the journal. This means you can continue publishing open access and comply with your funder if required, at no cost. During the grace period we would strongly recommend that authors include the rights retention statement in any submissions to SN journals (including Nature titles). If you have any questions about applying the Research Publications and Copyright Policy please contact the Open Access team.

What should authors do?

We are in a grace period until the end of February 2023. During this time we continue to have access to SN online content and our authors are able to publish open access via our 2022 agreement. As mentioned previously we recommend authors include a rights retention statement regardless of the grace conditions as this secures your right to publish open access if a deal is not agreed. We will continue to keep you informed of developments via this blog. You can also read about the negotiations from Jisc https://www.jisc.ac.uk/springer-nature-negotiations.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact us.