'Open Research' refers to the practice of openness throughout the research process, in terms of both how research is performed and knowledge is shared. Sometimes the term 'Open Science' has been used interchangeably, but 'Open Research' operates as a more holistic and inclusive term, including Social Scientists and Arts and Humanities researchers with those in the Physical or Biomedical Sciences.
Benefits of Open Research include:
Open Research practices can take on various forms including preregistration of research studies, 'Open Peer Review', and Open Access publication.
'Open Access' (or OA) is the practice of providing free, unlimited online access to scholarly works and research outputs in a digital format, with limited restrictions on re-use.
Often Open Access research outputs will have a Creative Commons licence applied that ensures the output remains Open Access, and that any restrictions on re-use are enforced.
Benefits of Open Access include:
There are various forms of Open Access, as will be outlined in the next section.
As previously mentioned, there are a number of benefits that come from Open Access, including wider outreach, higher citation rates and impact in areas beyond academia. As well as the benefits, both for your own research profile and for the broader research environment, there are also an increasing number of Open Access requirements you need to meet.
Both the University and REF have Open Access policies in place, whereby your research must be Open Access via either the Green or Gold Route. A number of funders also have policies around Open Access, that vary in their specific requirements. As a result, you will need to ensure you make your research Open Access.
Throughout the publication process, you will reach different stages where you will need to take action. Two key stages are at Submission and Acceptance, which is why we advice that you need to "Sort at Submission" and "Act on Acceptance".
Sort at Submission:
Act on Acceptance:
Publisher's Proof:
At Publication:
There are four main types of open access that you may hear about: Diamond (or Platinum), Gold, Green or Bronze (or Free) Open Access.
Diamond Open Access is similar to Gold Open Access, where the research is Open at the point of publication, except that there is no charge for publishing.
Gold Open Access makes the final version of an article freely and permanently accessible for everyone, immediately at publication. Copyright for the article is retained by the authors and most of the permission barriers are removed. Gold Open Access typically occurs as a result of publishing in an open access or hybrid journal. There is usually a fee (called an article processing charge or APC) associated with this option which the author or their institution will be asked to pay. Articles published Gold OA will usually be published with a Creative Commons Licence.
When authors publish with a journal and deposit a version of the article for free public use in their institutional repository (e.g. Pure) and/or a central subject-based repository (e.g. Arxiv or PubMed Central), this is known as self-archiving and is often referred to as Green Open Access. Depending on the publisher's policies, the version archived is often an author's accepted version rather than the published version. Most Open Access requirements will consider Green Open Access routes.
Sometimes publishers may release an article under a Free licence, which is sometimes called “Bronze Open Access”. Whilst this research would be freely available like most open access, this may not always be reliable and could revert to a more restrictive licence. As such, this will not meet any Open Access requirements.
Please note that we are not qualified to provide 'legal advice' around copyright and intellectual property. The information provided here is for guidance and information purposes only.
Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people.
More information on copyright is available at the following LibGuide: https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/c.php?g=669069
Creative Commons licences ensure that the final version of a research output remains freely and permanently accessible for everyone at the point of publication, and copyright for the article will be retained by the authors.
There are six different Creative Commons licences, varying in restrictiveness, all of which allow a work to be open access.
CC BY – Creative Commons Attribution. This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. It is recommended that you use this licence wherever possible.
CC BY-SA – Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.
CC BY-NC – Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial. This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.
CC BY-NC-SA – Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike. This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.
CC BY-ND – Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives. This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.
CC BY-NC-ND – Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives. This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.
Open Government Licence (OGL): Can apply to works which are ‘crown copyright’ and produced by UK government bodies. An Open Government licence is equivalent to a CC BY licence in allowing a user to:
‘copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information’
‘adapt the Information’
‘exploit the Information commercially and non-commercially for example, by combining it with other Information, or by including it in your own product or application’
Above uses are permitted on the condition that due acknowledgement and attribution is provided.
CopyLeft Licensing: Most commonly applied in the field of software, Copyleft principles permit the free distribution and modification of the original work under the proviso that the same rights be applied to any derivative work created from the original. This is equivalent to the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) licence.
For copyright queries related to teaching materials, the relevant Academic Liaison Librarian for your department can provide advice.
For researchers looking to re-use copyrighted material in a publication, the Research & Scholarly Publications team can be contacted for guidance in the first instance.
Predatory Publishers/Journals are a rising challenge to the international research environment. Essentially, predatory publishers are publishers that are involved in deceptive practices, including misrepresenting the quality of their peer review, usually with the aim of acquiring researchers' publishing fees.
The practices of predatory publishers vary widely, which has often made them difficult to identify. In 2019, a group of academics, publishers, research funders, academic institutions and policy makers met to establish a definition of predatory publishers:
Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices.
Grudniewicz, A., Moher, D., Cobey, K.D., et al. (2019) ‘Predatory Journals: No Definition, No Defence’. in Nature vol. 576 (7786). Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 210–212. available from <http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03759-y >
When assessing journals, there are a few things to look out for to avoid falling for a predatory publisher:
This is not a definitive list - there are other practices that might make a journal predatory, and vice versa a trusted journal may seem to be doing one of these things (e.g. a new or under-resourced journal may be easily confused with a predatory journal). This list should, therefore, be used as a guide to help you begin to assess a journal. If you are ever in doubt about a journal, please contact the Research and Scholarly Publications teams (oa.lib@coventry.ac.uk) who will be able to advise.
Advance Online Publication |
Articles published online as soon as they have been fully copy-edited and proof-checked, ahead of the final, ‘printed’ version. Embargo periods start from this date. Also known as Early or First online publication. |
Article Processing Charge (APC) |
Fee paid to the publisher to publish an article via the gold open access route. The term Book Processing Charge (BPC) applies where an equivalent charge is made to publish a book / monograph open access. |
Bibliographic Record |
The bibliographic description of a digital publication often used by search engines to find documents. High-quality metadata ensures documents are easily discoverable. Also known as Publication record or Metadata. |
Bronze Open Access |
See "Diamond, Gold, Green and Bronze OA". |
Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) |
Agreement signed by authors upon their work being accepted that usually transfers copyright from the author to the publisher. This will often outline the author's rights concerning re-using and re-distributing the publication. For authors seeking to negotiate or amend the terms of a CTA, the SPARC Author Addendum can provide an alternative framework. Please also note that some research funders (The Wellcome Trust from 1st January 2021 and UKRI from 1st April 2022) require that authors utilise a standard Rights Retention Statement in place of signing a Copyright Transfer Agreement. |
Corresponding Authors |
The author contact for the publisher, responsible for manuscript correction, correspondence, handling of revisions and re-submission of the revised manuscript and co-ordinating the payment of the Article Processing Charge (APC) where applicable. |
Creative Commons Licenses |
See "Copyright and Creative Commons Licences" |
Diamond Open Access (or Platinum Open Access) |
See "Diamond, Gold, Green and Bronze OA". |
DOI - Digital Object Identifier |
A unique identifier for an online document, used by most online journal publishers. As the DOI is unique to the publication, linking to an online document by its DOI provides more stable linking than simply referring to it by its URL. |
Embargo Period |
a period during which access to an archived research publication in a repository is restricted, typically to protect the revenue of publishers who rely on subscription payments to cover the costs of publication. |
Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC) |
A life sciences and biomedical research subject repository. The Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council (MRC) and most other UK biomedical funders require copies of funded articles to be deposited in Europe PMC within 6 months of publication. The USA-based PubMed Central is the repository containing global content. |
Gold Open Access |
See "Diamond, Gold, Green and Bronze OA". |
Green Open Access |
See "Diamond, Gold, Green and Bronze OA". |
Institutional Repository |
Online digital archive of an institution’s research publications. Coventry University's Institutional Repository is Pure. |
Open Access (OA) |
See "What is Open Research / Open Access". |
Plan S |
A new Open Access policy initiative due to come into effect from 1st January 2021. The terms of Plan S will apply to authors in receipt of funding from a Plan S affiliate, who include major UK research funders UKRI on behalf of UK Research Councils and the Wellcome Trust. Funders will maintain their own Open Access policies and may implement their Plan S aligned policy at different times, though they will be based on the common principles established by Plan S. Please see the Plan S tab of this LibGuide for further details. |
Platinum Open Access |
See "Diamond, Gold, Green and Bronze OA". |
Postprint (or Author's Accepted Manuscript / AAM) |
The final draft author manuscript, as accepted for publication, after peer review changes are incorporated but before copy-editing and proof correction. The postprint version should be deposited in Pure in order to meet the REF and funder requirements, if the final published version will be restricted to subscribers. |
Predatory Publisher |
This is a contested term, but publishers accused of predatory practices typically charge Article Processing Charges (APCs) and in return fail to provide the necessary quality checks expected of reputable publishers. Such publishers may misrepresent who sits on their editorial board, the journal impact factor and lack a rigorous peer review process. To avoid inadvertently submitting to a predatory journal we would advocate following the principles outlined by Think Check Submit to help identify if a journal is reputable. |
Preprint (or Author's Submitted Manuscript) |
The author's final draft of a paper before peer-review. Many publishers allow authors to place the preprint in a repository, including preprint servers; however, the deposit of a preprint version does not normally satisfy funder and research assessment requirements. The post-print / accepted manuscript usually needs to be deposited to meet the minimum requirements |
Preprint Server |
A purpose built repository developed to host and make available pre-peer reviewed versions of research articles. Preprint servers tend to be subject / discipline specific in terms of the content they host. For a listing of Preprint servers, see the Open Science Foundation directory. |
Published PDF (Version of Record) |
The final formatted PDF file that appears in the journal. This version will be the publisher's copy-edited PDF with final page numbers, typesetting and journal branding included. Most publishers will not allow you to self-archive this version unless you have paid an APC to make the paper openly available immediately. |
Publisher Agreement |
See Copyright Transfer Agreement |
Publisher Proof |
The version after acceptance but before the Final Version of Record has been produced. Typically the Proof version cannot be hosted through Pure due to publisher copyright considerations. |
Pure (see also Institutional Repository) |
Coventry University's Institutional Repository. The public facing Portal can be accessed here and outputs can be deposited here. |
A research assessment exercise which is designed to assess the quality of research in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The exercise takes place approximately every 6 years. The Open Access policy for the REF exercise, first introduced in April 2016, remains in effect. Details are available here. |
|
Rights Retention Statement |
A statement applied that allows authors to retain additional rights over the accepted manuscript (Postprint) version of their work. For more please see the Plan S Rights Retention Strategy information. |
Subject Repository |
Subject specific repositories that often contain predominantly Preprint material (such as Arxiv), although some also contain accepted manuscripts or final publications. Prominent subject repositories include PubMed (for Medical and Biosciences), RePEc (for Economics) and Arxiv (used by researchers in various fields such as Physics, Computer Science and Mathematics). To ensure REF Open Access compliance always record publications in Pure even if it is recorded in a subject repository. |
Transformative Agreement (or Transitional Agreements / Read and Publish Agreements) |
An agreement where a publisher / journal commits to adjust their business model over a period of time to shift from one based around revenue from subscription access charges, to one based around open access publishing charges. At the end of a transitional period the journal(s) are to become fully open access publications. Under these agreements, researchers at Universities that are part of these agreements can both access restricted research (the Read part) and publish Gold Open Access at no additional cost (the Publish part). |
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Open Access and Pure Deposits - oa.lib@coventry.ac.uk
Research Data Management - rdm.lib@coventry.ac.uk
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