Open Access

At Oxford Brookes we have an Open Access policy which generally supports Open Access publication for all research outputs. We have an institutional repository, called RADAR (Research Archive and Digital Assets Repository), which is a key tool for sharing Oxford Brookes' Open Access research with researchers from other institutions and the general public.

Routes to Open Access

A research output can be regarded as being Open Access if the original research content has been made publicly and freely available online with an irrevocable licence or usage statement (such as a Creative Commons licence) that allows unlimited sharing and reproduction.

However, some research funders have a stricter definition for what they consider to be Open Access. See the links on the right for our support service for research projects funded by UKRI or one of its Research Councils, and our email address if you would like to contact us about how to comply with a research funder's Open Access policy.

Here are the two main routes to achieving an Open Access publication:

Green Open Access

Green is a route to Open Access where there are two versions of the output: one is the ‘Version of record’ that is published by a scholarly publisher and that readers must pay to access, the other is the ‘Author's Accepted Manuscript’ that is made publicly and freely available to any readers without charge through a repository. Oxford Brookes has an institutional repository called RADAR that achieves this purpose.

Green Open Access functions within the traditional scholarly communications financial model, where readers (typically through academic library subscriptions) pay for services performed by scholarly publishers.

Gold Open Access

Gold is a route to Open Access where there is only one version of the output: the ‘Version of record’ that is published by a scholarly publisher, and this is freely available from the scholarly publisher’s platform immediately at the point of publication, to any reader, without any charge or barrier.

In Gold Open Access there are many different and evolving models for paying for the publishing services performed by scholarly publishers, though typically they involve direct payments from authors’ institutions or research funders.

There are multiple ways that the fees for Gold Open Access can be paid for Oxford Brookes authors:

If a research project has an external research funder then that funder should pay any Open Access Fees. Researchers usually need to include the cost of Open Access Fees in their grant applications, though this is not necessary for UKRI / RCUK.
Oxford Brookes Library may have an agreement with the publisher of their work that includes Gold Open Access publishing for Oxford Brookes authors. There is more detail on these agreements below.
An application can be made for Oxford Brookes to pay an Open Access Fee (also known as an Article or Book Processing Charge). The application procedure and application form are available here.

REF and Open Access

Below are some key points from the REF Open Access policy:

Journal articles and conference proceedings that were published in a publication with an ISSN number must be published as Open Access to be included in REF.
The acceptance date is what matters, not the publication date. The acceptance date is "as given in the acceptance letter or email" from the publisher.
Relevant outputs must be deposited in an institutional repository (for Oxford Brookes staff, this will normally be RADAR) as soon as possible after acceptance and in any case no longer than three months after the acceptance date.
The version of the output that must be deposited is the "author's accepted and final peer-reviewed text" (sometimes known as the 'accepted manuscript' or 'postprint'). Please note that a version of the output that is provisionally accepted before peer review is not considered as the accepted manuscript.
Publishing an output through the Gold route to Open Access is immediately compliant with the REF requirements, meaning a version of the output does not need to be deposited in a repository. The definition of Gold Open Access we are using is that the article has been licenced by the publisher with any one of the Creative Commons Licences or an equivalent.

Use our step-by-step guide to following the REF requirements

What should researchers do?

Here are some steps to take to publish your research as Open Access:

Choose a journal, conference proceeding, or publisher that allows Open Access publishing before submitting the research output for their consideration. See above for information about the two main routes to Open Access publishing.
'Act on Acceptance': as soon as the publisher accepts your work for publication, add the details of the research output to Converis.

Green route: also upload to Converis the version of your manuscript that was accepted for publication by the publisher after peer-review (sometimes known as the 'Author's Accepted Manuscript') and evidence of the acceptance date (e.g. an email from publishers that states full acceptance and includes a date the email was received). To help you with this we have made step-by-step and videos guides on How to add outputs to Converis for REF.
Gold route: please add the details of the publication (e.g. title, authors, DOI, etc) to Converis but you do not need to upload a manuscript or evidence of acceptance.

The Scholarly Communications Team will then check the record on the Converis for accuracy and add or request any further information. For Green Open Access outputs we will also find out the publisher's Open Access policy (e.g. the length of embargo that should be applied) and add the Author's Accepted Manuscript of the research output to RADAR (while respecting any embargo that may apply).

'Act on Acceptance' and add your publication to Converis

Use our step-by-step guide to following the REF requirements

Open Access publishing provided by Oxford Brookes Library

Oxford Brookes Library is signing an increasing number of agreements with scholarly publishers that provide Oxford Brookes authors with the opportunity to publish their work Open Access.

The agreements may include an allowance for Gold Open Access publishing (e.g. ‘read & publish’) or involve regular annual payments to the publisher / journal to allow them to operate an Open Access model with no individual fees for readers or authors (e.g. ‘Subscribe to Open’).

These agreements with scholarly publishers are negotiated by Jisc Collections on behalf of all UK universities, and Oxford Brookes Library then chooses which agreements it will sign based on academic need and financial viability.

ACM

The agreement between Oxford Brookes Library and ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) provides unlimited Open Access publishing for Oxford Brookes authors if all the following criteria are met:

The paper is submitted to an eligible ACM journal, magazine, or conference proceedings (a full title list is available here)
The corresponding author who submits the article uses their Oxford Brookes email address and states their affiliation as Oxford Brookes University.
The article has an acceptance date between 1st January 2023 and 31st December 2025

The publisher's own information on this agreement is available here: ACM OPEN and ACM OPEN Author Experience

This agreement expires on 31st December 2025.

Cambridge University Press

The agreement between Oxford Brookes Library and Cambridge University Press provides Open Access publishing for Oxford Brookes authors of Research articles, Review Articles, Rapid Communications (RRR), Brief Reports, and Case Reports submitted to the publisher's Hybrid and Gold (Fully Open Access) journals.

To qualify for this agreement the author must use an Oxford Brookes email address and select a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.

This agreement expires on 31st December 2024.

Elsevier

The agreement between Oxford Brookes Library and Elsevier provides unlimited Open Access publishing for Oxford Brookes authors in Elsevier's hybrid journals (that publish a mix of Open Access and non-Open Access articles) if all the following criteria are met:

The corresponding author who submits the article is affiliated with Oxford Brookes.
The article is submitted to an eligible journal (search eligible journals at https://agreements.journals.elsevier.com/jisc).
The article has an acceptance date between 1st January 2022 and 31st December 2024.

The agreement does not include Open Access publishing in Elsevier's Gold Open Access journals (i.e. journals that only publish Open Access articles). Instead the agreement provides a 15% reduction in the Open Access Fee that must be paid to publish in these journals.

Here is Elsevier's information on this agreement: https://www.elsevier.com/open-access/agreements/jisc

This agreement expires on 31st December 2024.

Sage

Oxford Brookes Library has signed an agreement with Sage that provides unlimited Open Access publishing in any subscription journal (that publishes a mix of Open Access and non-Open Access articles, sometimes called ‘hybrid’ journals) for Oxford Brookes researchers. For an article to qualify for this Open Access, the corresponding author must be affiliated with Oxford Brookes or another institution that has signed the relevant agreement.

The agreement does not include unlimited Open Access publishing in Sage’s Gold Open Access journals (i.e. journals that only publish Open Access articles). Instead the agreement provides a 20% reduction in the Open Access Fee that must be paid to publish in these journals, although again there are some journals that are excluded from this discount.

There are also some publication types (e.g. book reviews) and journals (e.g. those that join Sage mid-way through this agreement) that are excluded from this agreement.

Springer Nature

All institutions participating in the agreement share an annual ‘publish’ fund. When the publishing fund is in credit, all articles will be published Gold Open Access (on a first-come-first served basis) if the following requirements are met:

The journal is included in the agreement - you can download a lists of participating Springer and Nature journals from this page.
The type of article is an Original Paper (also referred to as Original Research, Original Article, or Research Paper), Review Paper, Brief Communication, or Continuing Education.
The corresponding author uses an Oxford Brookes email address and chooses their affiliation as Oxford Brookes University.

Each article published Gold Open Access through this agreement will decrease the shared fund until it is exhausted. If the publishing fund is exhausted then it will not be possible to publish Gold Open Access through this agreement for the rest of the calendar year.

Here is Springer Nature's guidance on the agreement for authors: https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-research/oa-agreements/uk

Taylor & Francis

Authors from Oxford Brookes can publish their articles Gold Open Access with Taylor & Francis without any fee under the following conditions:

The article ‘cap’ of c.6,000 articles (shared between all institutions participating in the agreement) has not been reached in the current calendar year.
The corresponding author uses an Oxford Brookes email address at the point of submission.
The article-type is a ‘Research article’ (other article-types like letters, editorials, etc. are excluded).
The journal submitted to does not normally (outside of this agreement) have an Article Processing Charge (APC) of more than £3,000 (Taylor & Francis APC’s can be found here)
The journal submitted to is a ‘hybrid’ journal (it publishes both subscription and Open Access articles, i.e. it is not a purely Gold Open Access journal) from the lists linked to below:

Social Sciences and Humanities Collection (Publishing list)
Science and Technology Collection (Publishing list)
Medical Collection (Publishing list)
FRESH Collection (Publishing list) - ‘young’ titles between 3-7 years old

This agreement expires on 31st December 2023.

Wiley

All institutions participating in the agreement share an annual ‘publish’ fund that is managed by Jisc.

When the publishing fund is in credit, all articles will be published Gold Open Access (on a first-come-first served basis) if the following requirements are met:

The article-type is either a primary research article or a review article (other article-types like letters, editorials, etc. are excluded).
The journal is a fully Gold Open Access journal or a subscription (‘hybrid’) journal that offers OnlineOpen.
The corresponding author is from Oxford Brookes (or another institution that is participating in the Jisc - Wiley agreement).

Each article published Gold Open Access through this agreement will decrease the shared fund until it is exhausted. If and when the publishing fund is exhausted, Jisc and Wiley will negotiate on whether the Gold Open Access allowance can be extended.

Here is Wiley’s guidance on the agreement for authors: https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/open-access/affiliation-policies-payments/jisc-agreement.html