LibGuides: Academic staff & researchers' guide: Open Access Compliance

Open Access Compliance

What you need to do

The University of South Wales open access policy, at a minimum, requires:

USW authors must add the bibliographic details (metadata) of their publication to the institutional repository, Pure, on acceptance for publication.
For journal articles and published conference papers - the author’s accepted and final peer-reviewed text MUST be deposited to Pure within 3 months of acceptance. If you have any concerns about the correct version of the paper that must be deposited, please contact the USW Research Librarian. If the author’s accepted manuscript is not deposited in Pure within 3 months of acceptance the paper will be considered non-compliant with the REF OA policy and will not be eligible for submission in the REF.
While not currently a requirement we encourage authors to deposit the accepted manuscripts of book chapters and longform outputs, where the publisher allows this under their Green Open Access Policy. Further advice can be sought from the USW Research Librarian.
The University recognises that there may be rare cases where Gold open access publishing could be the only option for a compliant paper under UKRI funding or for REF eligibility – in these circumstances USW authors should initially check with the USW Research Librarian for up to date information on the availability of any Read and Publish deal. If no Read and Publish deals are available consideration will be given to using institutional funds for Gold Open Access.

What is the REF

The Research Excellence Framework assesses the quality of research in UK universities. The last REF submission took place in 2021, the next assessment is likely to include research from the period 01/01/2021-31/12/2027 but that is to be confirmed. Details of USW's successes in REF 2021 can be found here. The full REF 2021 results from all UK HEIs are available here.

How the library can support you

Open Access & OA Compliance

We run a session, ‘Introduction to Open Access’, as part of the Research and Innovation Development Programme and a similar session is also part of the Graduate School Training for PGRs. You can book via iTrent to attend the Research & Innovation Development Programme session and PGRs can book for that session via PhD Manager. If you prefer to have an individual appointment to discuss anything related to OA and compliance please get in touch with Nicholas Roberts, the USW Research Librarian to arrange a 1-to-1 session.

There is also an ‘Introduction to Pure’ session available as part of the Research and Innovation Programme where we cover the basics of OA compliance.

We have several pre-recorded sessions available online covering topics related to OA, those are available to all USW staff and students at any time if you want to go through them online (only available to USW staff and students).

There is also a section for Open Access resources on the OA and RDM area of the Research webpages, this includes the USW Open Access Policy.

Plus if you have any specific queries or need any assistance related to Open Access or compliance please contact Nicholas Roberts, the USW Research Librarian.

Contact: Nicholas Roberts, Research Librarian,

01443654051 (Internal ext. 654051),

nicholas.roberts@southwales.ac.uk | openaccess@southwales.ac.uk

General email for reporting general issues with Pure – puresupport@southwales.ac.uk

How to upload a paper to Pure

Research output types in Pure

Pure allows you to create a record to represent many types of research outputs that are relevant to your work. This covers ‘traditionally published’ research such as journal articles, book chapters or conference proceedings, but it also includes many other types of research output, such as patents, protocols, performances, exhibitions and other non-textual outputs.

Staff access to Pure: https://pure.southwales.ac.uk/admin (login with your normal username and password)

USW Research Explorer: https://pure.southwales.ac.uk/

Research outputs you should add to Pure

You must add open access compliant versions of journal articles and published conference papers which have been accepted for publication.

These are the most important because they are the ones covered by the REF Open Access policy. This policy states that you must deposit an open access compliant version of the paper in a repository within three months of their acceptance for publication. If you do not comply with this policy your paper will be ineligible for submission in the REF.

For journal articles and published conference papers - the author’s accepted and final peer-reviewed text MUST be deposited in Pure within 3 months of acceptance. If you have any concerns about what version is the correct one that must be deposited, please contact the USW Research Librarian.

For all non-journal/published conference paper outputs you should create a record in Pure as soon as it is published or scheduled for release.

It is important that authors and researchers understand what constitutes ‘OA compliance’. When you create a record for a journal article in Pure the information on compliance is displayed but if you require assistance do contact the USW Research Librarian.

While not currently a requirement of the USW OA Policy we encourage authors to deposit the accepted manuscripts of book chapters and longform outputs, where the publisher allows this under their Green Open Access Policy. Further advice can be sought from the USW Research Librarian. We also encourage USW staff and researchers to add the details your other publications and non-journal research outputs so that they appear on your Profile page of the USW Research Explorer.

Three ways to add research outputs to Pure

Click on the green ‘Add content’ button on your Pure profile page, select ‘Research output’ and choose one of the following options:

‘Create from template’: select the appropriate template and manually fill in the details.
‘Import from online source’: search a database to automatically populate your template (you can use this option if you have the DOI for the publication).
‘Import from file’: upload in bulk if your portfolio of publications is in BibTex or RIS format. If you have moved from a university that used Pure or used an institutional repository you should be able to obtain this file from them.

Filling in the template

Fields marked with a red asterisk are mandatory, you must complete these to be able to save the record.
Adding an acceptance date in the Publication status is important, we need to have that to track open access compliance. If you do not know the exact date of acceptance, use the first or last date of the closest month to the acceptance (e.g., if you know the article was accepted in July 2022 you can use 01/07/22 or 31/07/22 as an estimated acceptance date).
Add as much information as possible to increase the visibility of your research. If you are limited for time just add in the mandatory fields.
You must click on ‘Save’ before you close your record
The USW Research Librarian will check the details of all research outputs

Publication statuses

In preparation: the date the work is being prepared for submission. If adding records as ‘in Preparation’ or ‘Submitted’ we recommend that you choose to set the record's visibility as ‘Backend - restricted to Pure users’ so it will not appear on the research portal.
Submitted: the date the work was submitted to a journal for possible publication.
Acceptance date: the date the work is approved, following all peer review changes. For Open Access compliance you should upload the accepted manuscript, the final (peer-reviewed) version of the text without the layout and formatting from the final published version. By default, the record's visibility is set to ‘Public - No restriction’ and will appear on the research portal once it has been validated by the USW Research Librarian.
E-pub ahead of print: the date the publisher-formatted version was made available on the publisher’s platform.
Published: the date the work was formally published. The Pure record can be updated to include volume, issue, and page numbers.
Unpublished: this category should be used for any output that has not been formally published or presented in a wider forum.

Authors and affiliations

To add additional authors to an output, click on ‘Add person …’ and either select a name from your previous co-authors in the suggested authors list, search for a USW author, or create an external person.

If you notice an existing record that lists you as an ‘External Author’ get in touch with the USW Research Librarian and they will switch it over to your internal author record.

Definitions of visibility categories

‘Public - No restriction’: the record can be viewed publicly on the USW Research Explorer (our public facing repository)
‘Campus - Restricted to specific IP range’: this option is not used, do not use this category.
‘Backend - Restricted to Pure users’: the record is only visible to internal users of Pure, it will not be displayed on the USW Research Explorer. We recommend using this option if you are adding records of submitted outputs or those at a very early stage of submission.
‘Confidential - Restricted to associated users and editors’: This is restricted to the creator of the record and editors in Pure, it includes the Pure administrators in RISe and Library Services. We recommend using Confidential for any material that has any restrictions due to being commercial in confidence or with issues of security or sensitivity.

Changing the visibility of a record

For most records the default setting is ‘Public - No restriction’. If you want to change the visibility once something has been validated please contact the USW Research Librarian with the details of the record you want to limit access to.

Open Access Guidance

The USW institutional information on what you need to deposit to be OA compliant is displayed in every Journal record you create in Pure. The information is displayed in large text in the section between the Journal information and the section labelled ‘Electronic Version(s) related files and links’.

Adding full text documents

For journals and published conference papers - to meet the USW Open Access Policy you must attach the author’s accepted manuscript within three months of the article’s acceptance date.

In the section labelled ‘Electronic version(s) and related files and links’

Click on ‘Add electronic version’.
Select ‘Upload an electronic version’.
Click ‘Browse’ and select the file you want to add.
Select the most appropriate version under 'Document version'. In most cases this should be the ‘Accepted author manuscript’. This is the final peer-reviewed version of the text but without the layout and formatting that is added by the Publisher/Journal in the final version. You should only upload the final published version if it has been published with an open access licence or a clear definition of the licence under which has been shared as open access.
Select 'Closed' under 'Public Access to File'. The USW Research Librarian will set up the embargo and licence required by the publisher and ensure that the output becomes open access at the appropriate time.
The other fields can be left blank. Click ‘Create’ to finish.
Remember to click on Save at the bottom of the record to save any changes.

Output validation process

All research outputs and the attached documents for open access are validated by the USW Research Librarian. They aim to validate the records within 7 working days, but it can take slightly longer during busy periods.

For journal articles and (published) conference papers - If the paper has been accepted and you do not deposit a compliant version of the paper you will be notified by email within 10 working days after creating the record in Pure. This email will outline what you need to do to be compliant.

Further help: