Links [1] [2] [5] updated 13.06.2024.
USW Open Access Policy
1.0 Policy Ownership
The USW OA policy was developed and will be reviewed by USW Learning Services and RISe.
Strategic responsibility for the approval of the policy is managed by the University Research Committee. It will be reviewed every 2 years, to reflect the UK national OA policy framework, with particular reference to the REF OA Policy[1] and the UKRI OA Policy[2].
2.0 USW Commitment to Open Research
Universities are increasingly accountable for the funding they receive for research. The academic community at the University of South Wales is committed to ensuring that the results of its research are made as freely accessible as possible and takes its responsibilities seriously, especially with regards to publicly funded research.
The USW 2030 Vision states that we are proudly anchored in South Wales with global reach, Open Access is one of the methods by which we extend the reach of our research. By making the outputs and data from our research and practice openly accessible via the USW Repository we can extend our reach, connecting with researchers everywhere in the world.
Over the last decade Open Access has become an essential component of research funder compliance but the University recognises that it has a wider role in scholarly communication, as a means to end of widening access to information. With institutional repositories becoming a window to an institution’s research open access plays a key role in fostering new collaborations and allowing the results of our research to be built upon and have a wider global impact.
At a local level USW provides critical research on issues directly affecting the communities in Wales, examples like the Substance Use Research Group’s work on the effects of the Minimum Alcohol Pricing in Wales or the work of the Unit for Development in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities on the competency framework for health staff in supporting people with learning disabilities in relation to their health, which has recently been rolled out nationally in Wales. In both cases research outputs from the projects, in the form of journal articles and reports, have been made been made publicly available via the USW Research Explorer repository.
3.0 Position statement
The University recognises that in order to ensure compliance with the directives of open access, an alliance of responsibility must be upheld between author and institution:
3.1 Author commitment
The University believes that authors should be provided with the autonomy to make decisions about where they wish to publish their outputs and should be committed to producing outputs of the highest quality.
Concurrently, academics should ensure that they are aware of and adhere to both funder and future REF Open Access policies.
3.2 Institutional commitment
The University will provide authors with informed support through engagement with funders of research, the REF and other external stakeholders to ensure that they are fully conversant with the developing nature of the open access agenda and operate within the requirements of compliance.
The University will maintain integrity in the compliance and monitoring of open access with an appropriate management and reporting system that is not only able to meet current demands but which has the ability to adapt to future changes in policy.
4.0 University of South Wales Open Access Policy
The University of South Wales recognises the value of its research, much of which is world and internationally leading, and so is committed to ensuring its knowledge and expertise is shared as widely and accessibly as possible to maximise its use and impact. It is important to acknowledge that Open Access goes beyond compliance with stakeholders, making our research available to a global audience is a fundamental aspect of our purpose.
4.1 Green Open Access and Gold Open Access
USW does not receive a Block Grant from the UKRI and do not have access to large central funds for use on Open Access publishing. Where publisher green open access policies are compliant with the UKRI and the REF Open Access Policies USW authors should use the Green Route to deposit their accepted manuscript in Pure.
4.2. Scope
This Open Access policy applies to all research outputs produced by staff and postgraduate research (PGR) students at the University of South Wales. All USW authored, or co-authored, research outputs should be recorded in Pure[3] with metadata records to capture the work and for UKRI-funded and REF submissions the compliant versions deposited where publishers allow.
4.2.1 Journal Articles
In line with the current REF Open Access Policy and the UKRI Open Access Policy the main scope of this policy relates to peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN). Authors are free to choose where to publish but must be responsible for ensuring they comply with the terms of this policy, and if applicable the open access policies of the funder and the REF open access policy. To comply with the current REF OA Policy for a journal article or published conference paper to be eligible for submission it must be made open access, either via an open licence on the publisher platform or by being deposited on an institutional repository. USW authors and active researchers who are likely to submit to the REF should deposit the accepted manuscript in Pure within 3 months of acceptance for publication.
4.2.2 Books, Book Chapters and longform outputs
From 2024 the UKRI will widen the scope of their OA Policy to include books, chapters and long-form outputs and the REF are likely to include similar outputs in the scope of their next OA policy. As of 2022 there is no requirement for authors to publish long-form outputs as Open Access but authors should deposit the accepted manuscripts for chapters in Pure where the individual publisher allows. Publisher policies for open access for books (and chapters) are not as well developed as those for journal articles, and we expect there to be a period of uncertainty (2022-2024) while publishers adjust their policies, authors should check with their funder if they want to confirm the specific open access requirements for books and book chapters.
4.2.3 Other publications and outputs from research practice
While this Policy has to align closely with mandated compliance requirements from the UKRI and the REF (and other research funders) we encourage all authors, practitioners and researchers to consider depositing their work in Pure and making it openly available via the USW Research Explorer (where licencing or other restrictions do not apply).
4.2.4 USW awarded doctoral-level and research Theses
This USW OA policy also applies to all doctoral, professional and research Theses (including PhD, DBA, MRes and MPhil) awarded by USW. The final version of the thesis PDF should be deposited in Pure soon after the award is conferred and made publicly available to the widest audience on the USW Research Explorer[4]. While not issued with Open Licences the theses are made openly available from the USW repository. If the final thesis cannot be made public (for reasons of commercial sensitive information, or other legal restrictions) the PhD document will be deposited in Pure but not made publicly available via the repository. USW doctoral theses (PhDs and DBAs) without any legal or commercial restrictions will also be harvested by the British Library EThOS (e-theses online service)[5] and made available on their site.
4.2.5 ‘Read & Publish’ Deals
The publishing sector is implementing ‘transitional agreements’ in an effort to conform with ‘Plan S’[6]. One type of this transitional agreement is often referred to as ‘Read and Publish’ deals. These deals include access to published content (subscriptions) as well as a paying for a proportion of OA publishing costs. USW have a small number of these deals currently but aim to increase this over time, giving USW authors more opportunities to publish articles as Gold open access. Please contact the USW Librarian for more information.
4.2.6 Contingency
4.3 Staff Responsibilities
The University of South Wales open access policy, at a minimum, requires:
4.4 Institutional Responsibilities
5.0 Links to other USW Policies
Open Access can impact on other areas of University work and USW researchers should consult the following policies that relate to making work publicly available:
USW Employee IP Policy – Item 2.4.5 of that policy states: “The University supports the publication of Scholarly Works in open access journals as set out in the Open Access Policy. To this end, the University requires all full text versions of Scholarly Works to be self-archived by the Originators through the University’s institutional Research Management Information System (Pure) subject to any Third Party contractual limitations. Where Scholarly Materials are thought to contain commercialisable IP, Employees should disclose such IP to RBE as set out in 2.2.2 prior to submitting such materials for publication so that an IP protection plan can be put in place, in line with the USW Employee IP Policy”.
USW Research Data Management (RDM) Policy – this is currently being devised but will include depositing data on Pure as part of its scope.
6.0 Future OA developments and Monitoring this policy
Open access has fundamentally changed the academic publishing sector and it continues to provide an emphasis for change for all stakeholders. The expectation is that the next 2-3 years will see further changes on the HE sector and academic publishing in relation to Open Access, it will be necessary for HEIs to have policies that can adapt to fully reflect the rules from stakeholders, to that end we will closely monitor the OA policy landscape and will review this plan accordingly every 2 years. If any staff require up-to-date advice on OA or related developments, they should contact the USW Research Librarian.
Institutional Support - Contacts
Support for open access will be provided by the RISe and Learning Services. The main contacts are:
Open Access Support:
nicholas.roberts@southwales.ac.uk
Policy and implementation:
sarah.theobald@southwales.ac.uk
Appendix A: Glossary of Terms
Accepted Manuscript – the version of the journal article (or other published output) that has been accepted for publication and been through peer-review but has not been typeset and been put in the final formatting for publication.
British Library EThOS – is the British Library e-theses online service, it harvests thesis metadata and links to documents from Institutional Repositories and makes them available from https://ethos.bl.uk/Home.do.
Conference Proceedings – is a collection of papers presented at a conference and formally published, usually with an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) and/or an ISBN (International Standard Book Number).
Gold Open Access – refers to the route of open access where the article is published on the publisher’s platform with an open licence, for which a fee is usually paid to the publisher.
Green Open Access – refers to the route of open access where an earlier version of the article (usually referred to as the accepted manuscript) is deposited in an institutional (or other) repository and made open access, usually after a publisher required embargo period.
Journal Articles – research published in serial publications for an academic audience.
Open Access – refers to the removal of barriers to access scholarly material, usually in the form of open licences that state how the material can be shared and reused.
Open Licences – the legal instrument that identifies what level of re-use is allowed by the end user, e.g., Creative Commons licences and Open Data Commons licences.
Plan S – is an initiative for open access publishing that is supported by cOAlition S, an international consortium of research funding and performing organisations. Plan S requires, that from 2021, scientific publications that result from research funded by public grants must be published in compliant Open Access journals or platforms.
Pure – the research information management system used by USW, a product from Elsevier.
‘Read & Publish Deals’ – transitional contracted agreements with publishers which incorporate elements of open access publishing costs alongside costs for accessing subscription content.
REF – the Research Excellence Framework is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK HEIs.
REF OA Policy – is the open access policy operated by the REF.
Research Outputs – meaning any output coming from research activity to be shared with other researchers or a wider audience, it can take the form of formally published outputs (i.e., journal articles, books, chapters, etc.) or material that is not published but may be shared with an audience or a peer group (i.e., presented conference papers, performances or non-textual forms of research practice).
Scholarly Materials - are defined as: materials of a scholarly nature created by Employees, such as: hard copy textbooks, academic journal articles; conference papers and related presentations; notes created only for their own personal use; theses and dissertations; novels and poems; video or film material; musical scores and audio recording; and works of fine art, but excluding any such materials or part of them which form part of Research Materials, Teaching Materials or University Materials.
UKRI – UK Research and Innovation is the UK public body that directs research and innovation funding, it is comprised of the seven Research Councils, Innovate UK and Research England.
UKRI OA Policy – is the open access policy operated by the UKRI.
USW Research Explorer – the ‘front-end’ repository portal of the Pure system, the publicly available repository for USW research outputs.
Appendix B
Possible future impacts on the USW Open Access Policy
[1] https://2021.ref.ac.uk/media/1447/ref-2019_01-guidance-on-submissions.pdf (the REF 2021 OA policy is addressed pp 26-27 and pp 54-59), N.B. the REF OA policy is currently under consultation (2024)
[5] http://ethos.bl.uk [service currently offline 2024]