Skip to Main Content
Library logo

Research & Scholarly Publications Team: Open Access Requirements

A banner titling the Open Access LibGuides pages

University Open Access Standard

Coventry University LogoThe University has had an Open Access Standard in place since 1st August 2015, which is annually reviewed alongside related policies. 

The Open Access Standard ensures that research outputs from the University are disseminated as widely as possible, helping to raise the profile of the authors and University. Furthermore, open access facilitates broader knowledge transfer and open science. It also ensures that non-academic organisations such as small and medium-sized enterprises and charities who have limited access to journal outputs are able to freely access published research via the internet.

The Open Access Standard was developed to help ensure compliance with the Open Access policy in effect for the REF 2021 Research Assessment exercise. The Open Access policy in effect for future Research Assessment Exercises is expected to be reviewed in early 2022, and the University Standard is likely to be updated in light of any changes.

What does this mean for individual researchers?

Research staff and students at the University should be aware of the seven requirements which form the Open Access Standard:

  1. Authors record bibliographic details of all research outputs in the University Repository Pure, within three months of the date of acceptance for publication. Authors additionally must deposit full text copies of research outputs, i.e. the final accepted peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers (and where appropriate monographs) in the institutional repository no later than three months after the date of acceptance for publication.
  2. Authors must deposit all other types of research output where copyright allows; subject to the conditions of any research contracts with third parties, commercial sensitivities and discipline-specific conventions. Bibliographic details for these outputs must be recorded in Pure even if a version of the output cannot be made available. Authors of practice-based outputs must deposit documentation of the research dimensions of the output.
  3. Where publisher’s copyright permissions allow and there is no confidentiality or commercial constraints, the research outputs in the institutional repository must be made available open access, i.e. freely available over the internet. This process is managed and overseen by our Research and Scholarly Publications team within the Library.
  4. Authors must use the standardised institutional affiliation “Coventry University” to ensure clear affiliation with the University and their Research Centre (if they are a member of one) or Faculty.
  5. Authors must comply with funders’ policies relating to open access and research data management. For more on these subjects please see the relevant Open Access and Research Data Management sections of this LibGuide, and contact us if you should have any questions.
  6. Authors must acknowledge the source of grant funding associated with a research output in the publication itself. Information about the grant must also be linked by the author, to the record of the publication in Pure.
  7. Authors should register for an individual ORCiD identifier and include this on Pure, when submitting publications, and when applying for grants to ensure the individual is credited for their work and the correct institutional affiliation is achieved.

For more on the interoperability between ORCiD and Pure please see this section of our LibGuide.

Does it make a difference if I am publishing via the Gold or Green Routes?

You can satisfy the University's Open Access Standard via either route to open access.

Due to financial considerations, Coventry University has generally favoured open access by means of the Green Route (which does not involve an article processing fee).  This enables the author to publish for free in a subscription journal and to self-archive a version of the article for free public use i.e. in Pure, subject to publisher policies.  As well as ensuring your research reaches a wider audience, adding your research outputs to Pure will help researchers comply with funder policies and the requirements for national Research Assessment Exercises.

That being said, the University also recognises that there are additional benefits of the Gold open access route. This is where the final published version is made Open Access at point of publication. The University has Read and Publish agreements with specific publishers where open access publication is possible at no additional cost, and funding is available to cover Gold Open Access costs.

The policy applies in principle to all forms of research output. However, it is recognised that in some instances where it may not be possible to make the full text or output available openly, authors are encouraged to upload the output to Pure for preservation purposes with an indefinite embargo period applied if required. Restricted access to the document can be set by the Research and Scholarly Publications team who will check publisher permissions and policies and advise where appropriate.

We would encourage authors to negotiate publishing contracts where possible and appropriate, to permit their work to be made available via the institutional repository, especially if the work is supported by a funder with a Rights Retention Strategy in place.

For further help and advice, please contact the Library Research & Scholarly Publications Team by email: oa.lib@coventry.ac.uk.

REF Open Access

Most staff will already be aware of the Research Excellence Framework (REF), which is a system for assessing the quality of research outputs in UK Universities which affects future research funding. 

Since April 2016, to be eligible to submit to the 2021 REF exercise or its successor (details yet to be confirmed), staff will have to meet open access requirements. These must be met at the time papers are accepted for publication - making your papers open access retrospectively during the REF selection process, will not meet the open access requirements. These requirements will apply to all universities in the UK.

The REF Guidance on Submissions document sets out the guidelines, which are summarised below.  

 Key points

  • The policy applies to all journal articles and any conference papers published in proceedings that have an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • The REF policy applies for eligible outputs accepted for publication after 1st April 2016. However, the University's own Open Access policy came into effect prior to this from 1st August 2015. 

  • An author's final peer-reviewed manuscript (Version Types) must be deposited in an institutional or subject repository on acceptance of the publication

  • Deposit must occur within three months of the acceptance date (as given in the acceptance letter or email from the publisher to the author)

 

The REF Open Access policy has three elements:

DEPOSIT
  • The accepted manuscript needs to be deposited to Pure, acting as our institutional repository system, within three months of acceptance.
  • The accepted manuscript should be the version which has undergone peer review and reflects changes resulting from peer review, and which has received final confirmation that it has been accepted for publication. Please note that 'provisionally accepted' manuscripts where changes have been required don't satisfy this criteria. Please see the Version Types document for help in visualising where the accepted manuscript sits within the publication cycle.
  • The deposited version can be replaced with an updated manuscript if there are late editorial changes not related to peer review or the academic content of the work. The final Version of Record can also be later added if the publisher permits this to be shared.
DISCOVERY
  • The output must be publicly visible and discoverable. To comply with this requirement we advise the visibility of a Pure record being set to 'public' from the point a publication has been accepted. This means the output's metadata (title, publication venue, list of authors etc.) being made publicly visible through the Pure Portal.
  • The default setting on Pure is for visibility of records to be set to ‘public’. The overall visibility of the record operates independently to the access to a document which has been uploaded.
ACCESS
  • Where outputs have no embargo (a restriction on sharing the paper during a time limit imposed by the publisher) they must be made open access within one month of deposit.
  • For outputs with an embargo period, those periods should not exceed 12 months for REF main panels A and B, or 24 months for REF main panels C and D. Unit of assessment and Panel information for the 2021 REF is available here. In cases where a longer embargo period is required by a publisher, or a journal's policy is otherwise not compatible with the REF Open Access policy, an exception may be applied provided the publication can be evidenced as being the most appropriate venue for the publication. Please note that in this circumstance the output would still need to meet the Deposit and Discovery criteria outlined above.
  • Once any embargo period has lapsed, deposited material should be 'presented in a form that allows anyone with internet access to search electronically within the text, read it and download it without charge'.

 

Please note -  Any output submitted to the REF which does not meet the requirements of this policy and does not meet with any of the allowed exceptions is liable to be given an unclassified score and will not be assessed.

A consultation is expected to be opened on the Research Assessment Open Access policy. This is expected to result in a revised Open Access policy to take effect at a later date. More information will follow on this in due course. 

 

Library Support

The Research and Scholarly Publications team monitor newly created records in Pure and where further action or information is required to ensure an output's compliance with the Open Access policy they will contact the author(s).

We offer regular drop in sessions around campus to support researchers using Pure and complying with Open Access requirements. We are also happy to meet virtually online or one-to-one in person to answer any questions individuals may have, please contact us via: oa.lib@coventry.ac.uk and we will be in touch.

Funder Open Access Policies

Following the launch of Plan S in 2018, a number of research funders have implemented Open Access policies. Below you will find a guide to the Open Access policies of various funders that often support research at Coventry University. If your research is funded by more than one funder, you will still have to meet the requirements of all the funders' policies.

Scope

Both Research articles and longform publications (like books and book chapters) are in scope of the funder’s Open Access Policy.

Requirements

  • The research must be made available immediately at the point of publication, either via Gold or Green Open Access. Longform publications may have an embargo of 12 months.
  • The work should have a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence applied where possible.
  • Any data funded by Arcadia must be made freely available online wherever possible.

Funding Support

Reasonable funding requests to cover APCs/BPCs, in the process making the research available Gold Open Access, are allowed to be included in grant budgets. Further support for Open Access funding is available from the University.


The Arcadia Fund Open Access policy can be read in full here

The British Academy does not have a specific open access policy, and does not permit their awards to be used to pay for Open Access publishing costs. However their APEX Awards terms and conditions have previously stated that: 'The Society is committed to the widest possible dissemination of research outputs through the awards that it supports, and encourages Award Holders to publish peer-reviewed articles and monographs in Open Access journals.'

The British Academy maintains its responses to open access consultations and initiatives on their website.

Scope

Only research articles are in scope of the funder’s Open Access Policy.

Requirements

  • The research must be made available within 6 months of publication at the latest, either via Gold or Green Open Access.
  • The accepted manuscript should be deposited in Europe PMC /PubMed .
  • The work must have a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence applied.
  • Where a publication cannot meet the open access requirements (e.g. if deposition in Europe PMC and open access within 6 months is not allowed by the journal), exceptions can be granted in exceptional circumstance. Exception requests should be made in advanced to research@bhf.org.uk.

Funding Support

It is possible to apply for additional funding to cover APCs, in the process making the research available Gold Open Access, directly from a block grant from the British Heart Foundation. You can apply for this from our internal funding form (be sure to include your funding grant code).


The British Heart Foundation Open Access policy can be read in full here

Scope

Only research articles are in scope of the funder’s Open Access Policy.

Requirements

  • The research must be made available immediately at the point of publication, either via Gold or Green Open Access.
  • The accepted manuscript should be deposited in Europe PMC /PubMed .
  • The work must have a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence applied. A CC BY-ND licence can be applied if permission is granted from the publisher.
  • Researchers are strongly encouraged to post preprints of their work in preprint repositories where possible

Funding Support

Funding to cover APCs, in the process making the research available Gold Open Access, can be taken from any underspend in your active grant. Further support for Open Access funding is available from the University.


The Cancer Research Open Access policy can be read in full here

Scope

All peer-reviewed Journal articles, conference papers and longform publications (like books and book chapters) are in scope of the funder’s Open Access Policy.

Requirements

  • The research must be made available immediately at the point of publication, either via Gold or Green Open Access.
  • The following rights retention statement should be applied to the submitted version of the article:

"This work was funded by the Εuropean Union under the Horizon Europe grant [grant number]. As set out in the Grant Agreement, beneficiaries must ensure that at the latest at the time of publication, open access is provided via a trusted repository to the published version or the final peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication under the latest available version of the Creative Commons Attribution International Public Licence (CC BY) or a licence with equivalent rights."

  • The work must have a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence applied. A CC BY-NC licence or CC BY-ND licence are permitted for longform publications.
  • Research Data to be managed in accordance with FAIR Principles and made available under a CC0 (public domain) or a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence under the principle of 'as open as possible, as closed as necessary'. Circumstances where data may not be shared include where it would be against a beneficiary’s legitimate interests, including regarding commercial exploitation, or where it would be contrary to any other constraints, in particular the EU competitive interests or the beneficiary’s obligations under this Agreement.

Funding Support

Only publication fees in full open access venues for peer-reviewed scientific publications are eligible for reimbursement by the funder, which need to have been budgeted into the Grant proposal. Further support for Open Access funding is available from the University.


The Horizon Europe Open Access requirements can be found in their Model Grant agreement, which can be found here

The present policy of the Leverhulme Trust is to 'make no stipulations regarding mandatory archiving or open access publication for Leverhulme grant holders' (Question 8).

However, the Leverhulme Trust does consider open access publishing costs as permissible costs which 'should be included either within the 25% associated costs allowable on Research Project Grants and Research Programme Grants or within the research expenses category for fellowships'. See Question 6 of the Leverhulme Trust's Associated Costs / Research expenses page for full information on this.

Scope

Both peer-reviewed research articles and conference papers are in scope of the funder’s Open Access Policy.

Requirements

  • The research must be made available immediately at the point of publication, either via Gold or Green Open Access.
  • The accepted manuscript should be deposited in Europe PMC /PubMed .
  • The following rights retention statement should be applied to the submitted version of the article:

"For the purpose of open access, the author has applied [a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence] [an ‘Open Government Licence’] (or where permitted by the NIHR) [a Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence] to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising."

Funding Support

It is possible to apply for additional funding to cover APCs, in the process making the research available Gold Open Access, directly from the funding body. Full information including a link to the request form can be found here.


NIHR’s Open Access policy can be read in full here

Section 12 of the Royal Society's Conditions of Award stipulate: 'The findings from the research funded by the Award are to be made freely available to the broader scientific community as soon as possible. However, the publication or release of such findings may be reasonably delayed enabling protection of any intellectual property. It is the responsibility of the Award Holder and the Host Organisation to actively communicate the findings from the research to the public at the relevant local, national or international level.'

At a minimum The Royal Society expects to follow the 'green' route to Open Access, as is the case under the University and REF Open Access policies. While the Royal Society's preference is for research to be made Open Access at point of publication, the Royal Society does not consent to cover Open Access publishing costs (Question 11 - 2022 Research Fellowship FAQs) .

Scope

Only research articles are in scope of the funder’s Open Access Policy.

Requirements

  • The research must be made available immediately at the point of publication, either via Gold or Green Open Access.
  • Where appropriate, the accepted manuscript should be deposited in Europe PMC / PubMed or another discipline-appropriate repository.
  • The following rights retention statement should be applied to the submitted version of the article.

“This research was funded in whole or in part by Templeton World Charity Foundation [Grant number]. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC-BY public copyright licence to any author accepted manuscript version arising from this submission.”

Funding Support

It is possible to apply for additional funding to cover APCs, in the process making the research available Gold Open Access, directly from the funding body, as long as the journal is indexed by DOAJ, complies with Plan S Technical guidance and requirements, and have an agreement for the published version to be deposited in Europe PMC and PubMed.


The Templeton World Open Access policy can be read in full here

Scope

Both review articles and conference papers in proceeding with an International Standards Serial Number (ISSN) are in scope of the funder’s Open Access Policy. From 1st January 2024, longform publications (like books and book chapters) will also be in scope.

Requirements

  • The research must be made available immediately at the point of publication, either via Gold or Green Open Access. Longform publications may have an embargo of up to 12 months.
  • The following rights retention statement should be applied to the submitted version of the article:

"For the purpose of open access, the author(s) has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence (where permitted by UKRI, ‘Open Government Licence’ or ‘Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence’ may be stated instead) to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising"

  • Research funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) or the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), must be archived in Europe PMC.
  • The work must have a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence applied. A CC BY-ND licence can be applied if permission is granted from the publisher following a request through their online form.
  • A data statement must be applied to manuscript, even if there is no available data or the data is inaccessible.

Funding Support

It is possible to apply for additional funding to cover APCs, in the process making the research available Gold Open Access, from the UKRI Block Grant. You can apply for this through our internal funding form (be sure to include your funding grant code).


The UKRI Open Access policy can be read in full here

Scope

Both research articles and longform publications (like books and book chapters) are in scope of the funder’s Open Access Policy.

Requirements

  • The research must be made available immediately at the point of publication, either via Gold or Green Open Access. Longform publications may have an embargo of 6 months.
  • Where appropriate, the accepted manuscript should be deposited in Europe PMC / PubMed .
  • The following rights retention statement should be applied to the submitted version of the article.

“This research was funded in whole, or in part, by the Wellcome Trust [Grant number]. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.”

Funding Support

It is possible to apply for additional funding to cover APCs, in the process making the research available Gold Open Access, directly from the funding body by contacting openaccess@wellcome.org. Full details can be found here


The Wellcome Trust Open Access policy can be read in full here

Introduction to Plan SPlan S Logo

First launched in September 2018, Plan S is a new open access framework which has been signed up to by several major research funders who comprise Coalition-S. 

 

The overarching goals of Plan S are to:

  • End embargo periods which delay research publications being made available open access by requiring immediate open access upon publication. This can take place via the Gold or Green routes to open access. The version released open access should be published under an open license, ideally a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence.
  • Have publishers of subscription journals commit to transformative agreements which would see their business model 'flipping' from subscription access to open access over a period of time up to the end of 2024.
  • Support authors retaining additional rights over how they can share their research, by allowing the accepted manuscript to be shared immediately at point of publication under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence.
  • Signatory funders commit to assess research based on the intrinsic merit of the work and not based on the publication channel, its impact factor (or other journal metrics), or the publisher. 

The 10 Principles of Plan S are available to read online.

There is also a Plan S FAQ page which is updated on an ongoing basis.

 

Funder signatories

Signatories that are major funders of research conducted in the UK include:

In addition there are numerous national research funders. The situation is dynamic, with new funders invited to sign up. For a complete list please check the Coalition-S website. 

An overview of the implementation timetables of different cOAlition S members is available through their website.

 

Routes to compliance

If you are a researcher funded by a Coalition-S signatory funder, there are three broad ways to comply with the Plan S open access requirements:

i) Publish in a fully Open Access journal under a CC BY licence (may necessitate payment of an Article Processing Charge)

ii) Publish in a journal subject to an approved transformative agreement under a CC BY licence. Please see the section below for more information in relation to this.

iii) Comply via the Green route by archiving the accepted manuscript to Pure, or other nominated repository, under a CC BY licence with no embargo (please see information on the Plan S rights retention strategy below for more on how this may work)

Please note that each Coalition-S member will develop their own local open access policy which connect to the overarching goals of Plan S, and there may be subtle differences between them. Please see individual funder information from the tabs in this guide, or contact us directly for further information.

 

A quick note on transformative agreements

Plan S supports three strategies in this area:

1) Transformative Agreements - these consist of contractual agreements between publishers and library consortia (e.g. JISC in the UK context) whereby subscription costs are reallocated to support costs of open access publishing. Such agreements are also known as 'Read & Publish' deals. Under this model subscription costs are to be phased out by the end of 2024 but Universities who are parties to such agreements continue to make payments to support publication costs. Plan S calls for such agreements to comply with ESAC Guidelines.

2) Transformative Model Agreements - these involve smaller publishers, such as Society Publishers, but otherwise follow similar principles to Transformative Agreements with libraries continuing to pay a subscription charge to the journal / publisher and in exchange authors from their University are able to publish with the journal in a compliant open access fashion without additional payment needing to be made.

3) Transformative Journals - where a journal commits to incrementally increasing the proportion of open access articles published year on year, with a corresponding decrease in subscription costs. The journal commits to fully 'flipping' to become an open access journal once 75% of its content is being published open access.

 

Rights Retention Strategy 

To help authors comply via the 'Green route' cOAlition S has developed a rights retention strategy aimed at ensuring authors retain the right to license their accepted manuscripts under a CC-BY / Creative Commons Attribution licence.

In principle the Rights Retention Strategy route should allow authors to publish in 'subscription' and 'hybrid' access journals whilst adhering to the Plan S funder policies of providing immediate Open Access to the author accepted manuscript version under the appropriate CC BY licence terms. cOAlition S have communicated this approach to publishers, and the great majority have not indicated that they would decline papers subject to the Rights Retention Strategy requirements, however it is necessary to make journals aware at the point of submission where this funder obligation applies.

There are two strategies in place in this area:

  • Some funders will implement a 'prior licence' to all future accepted manuscripts which stem from their funding. This then takes precedence over any subsequent license agreements.
  • Other funders will impose a 'prior obligation' on their grantees to license accepted manuscripts under the terms of the CC-BY licence.

 

What happens next?

A Plan S journal compliance checker tool has been launched. Researchers are asked to input their institution, funder and journal they wish to publish in, a result will then be returned indicating the open access compliance routes available to the author. If the information is in any way unclear then we would ask authors to contact us at: oa.lib@coventry.ac.uk and we will aim to provide further guidance.

From July 2022 open access journals which charge Article Processing Charges (APCs) will be required to provide transparent pricing as to how their APC costs are arrived at and what services are being provided in exchange for the fee.

There is also the prospect in the future of the remit of Plan S being expanded to cover publications such as monographs, though presently they are outside the scope of the Plan S policy.

Whilst Plan S is designed to help provide a standardised Open Access policy framework for there will be some variation in how the principles contained within Plan S are implemented and adapted by signatory funders.  

Contact Us

Library Front Entrance in the Sun📍 Where to find us:

FL320, Lanchester Library
Coventry University
Frederick Lanchester Building
Gosford Street
Coventry, United Kingdom
CV1 5DD

✉️ Email: 

Open Access and Pure Deposits - oa.lib@coventry.ac.uk
Research Data Management - rdm.lib@coventry.ac.uk

📞 Phone: 

024 7765 7568

📅 Drop-In Calendar: 

We hold regular drop-ins at all of our Research Centres. To find the next one, please see the full calendar of our drop-ins.
 

Deposit in Pure

  

 

RSPT Poster

Lanchester Library
Coventry University
Frederick Lanchester Building
Gosford Street
Coventry, United Kingdom
CV1 5DD
Telephone:+44 (0) 24 7765 7575
Email: ask-a-librarian.lib@coventry.ac.uk

Quick Links

Disability Support Accessibility Statement Opening Hours
Coventry University Libary logo