Top ten tips for universities seeking to implement Open Access
Withfunders requiring open access and researchers increasingly aware of it,
now is the time for universities to make significant headway in
providing a coherent plan for encouraging wider open access adoption. Neil Jacobs
from Jisc provides an overview of what actions have been taken around
the sector and outlines ten specific areas that institutions should
consider further in order to help the entire UK higher education sector
adapt to the changing policy landscape.
Recently, I’ve been working with higher education (HE)
research sector bodies to explore the experiences of a group of UK
higher education institutions as they forge ahead in their efforts to
implement open access (OA). I wanted to find out whether the experiences
of these bodies – specifically, the Association of Research Managers
and Administrators (ARMA), Research Libraries UK (RLUK), Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) and UK Council of Research Repositories (UKCoRR) – can help others setting out along the same road.
At the same time, researchers and their institutions were gearing up
for the latest set of OA policy developments, including July’s OA policy review by Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the release of the Higher Education and Funding Council for England (HEFCE)’s updated requirements for next year’s Research Excellence Framework (REF). What’s more, as of last month, the Wellcome Trust requires the lead researcher in any project applying for funding to quote an ORCID identifier within their bid.
As institutions and researchers get to grips with these latest
developments, now seems like a good time to offer our findings as a set
of ‘top tips’ for those seeking to make progress in their own OA
journey. Here they are:
Draw up a policy requiring research output availability in line with the REF
Developing a workable policy should be quite straightforward. There are lots of resources to draw on including these guidelines from UNESCO. The Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policiesoffers lots of examples and links to examples that you can browse and even reuse. Jisc’s own OA good practice pathfinder projects
have been working on a range of outputs focused on developing
approaches to implement an effective OA policy. They are summed up in
this recent update. You can also read the REF OA policy itself.
Getting your own policy right will enable your institution to commit
resources and it will help to ensure that academics understand both the
requirements and the benefits of OA practice.
Assess your current position on OA
Explore your institution’s OA preparedness and do the same for its
researchers; workshops and other activities are good ways to break down
barriers and develop a team-working approach. Work up a baseline
assessment so you can identify priority areas to work on first.
The ‘Making Sense’ pathfinder project, run by Oxford Brookes University and associates has created an OA benchmarking tool
to help institutions assess whether they are ready for OA
compliance. Further resources to help in this area are available on the OA good practice project blog.
Get your communications strategy right
For many a hard-pressed researcher, OA seems to be more about admin
and compliance than anything else. A clear, effective communications
programme will help to ensure that researchers understand the very real
benefits of OA and encourage them to become willingly involved in the
necessary workflows. This is a resource-hungry aspect of OA
implementation, but it brings rich rewards.
You’ll find inspiration in the advocacy toolkit developed by University College London (UCL) and the universities of Nottingham and Newcastle’s ‘Pathways to OA’ pathfinder project. It’s also worth looking at the and it’s worth looking at the examples from other advocacy pathfinder projects.
Setting up a standard OA email mechanism for use by publishers,
academics and other participants in the process pays dividends by
improving communication channels. You will probably need to commit time
and resources to establishing systems to monitor the email address and
manage workflows. UCL, Lancaster, Newcastle and Warwick universities all
employ standard OA emails mechanisms for this purpose.
Resolve the identity issue – implement ORCID
I’ve already mentioned the ORCID system of unique, persistent
personal identifiers. It enables researchers to manage their own
professional identity efficiently and it can help to automate many
processes for their institutions, such as managing and maintaining
records and reporting to the REF.
Jisc has recently brokered a national consortium agreement
to help the UK’s higher education institutions implement it quickly,
cost effectively and with an enhanced level of technical support.
Exploit tools that will help researchers navigate their way around OA policies
Our SHERPA/FACT
service enables researchers to check whether the journal they plan to
publish in is compliant with their research funder’s OA policies. It is a
reasonably straightforward tool that can make it much easier to conduct
checks and avoid mistakes over compliance.
Make sure your repository can support reporting and harvesting of metadata
Standardising the way information is recorded makes it quicker and easier to report to funders and other sector bodies. RIOXX
is a metadata application profile that has been developed to help in
applying consistency to metadata fields and it can now be implemented in
most repositories and Current Research Information Systems (CRISs).
What’s more, having standardised metadata extends the reach of research
by making it easier to discover. We offer extensive technical support to help repositories aiming to adopt RIOXX.
Record article processing charges (APCs) efficiently
Many funders require information on APCs
paid to journals. The same information is vital when you are working
with the growing number of journal publishers who will offset APCs against
journal subscription charges. Recording these charges accurately will
save the institution money and so we have worked with several large
funding bodies, including RCUK and the Wellcome Trust, to develop a single, agreed format.
The ‘GW4′ pathfinder project, run by the University of Bath library and associates at the universities of Bristol, Exeter and Cardiff, has explored OA reporting and APC payment workflows, while the project from Northumbria and Sunderland universities has worked on cost modelling tool for APCs.
Extend open practices to include your APC data
As the market for publication of OA articles develops, every research
institution stands to gain from keener pricing if charging is
transparent. Figshare is a forum on which universities are already sharing cost information. It’s worth joining the conversation.
Add a simple button in your repository to improve reach and impact
The simple act of including a ‘copy request’ button will enable
potential readers to access research from your institution even if it is
not published in OA, and it is very easy to do in most repository
configurations. You’ll need to prime researchers to look out for such
enquiries, but it should be relatively easy for them to fulfil requests
for all but older papers held in the repository. Some considerations
about adding the button are discussed in this blog post by Richard Poynder.
Install a tracker code to make download data available to the IRUS-UK aggregation service
This is a practical way to monitor your own institution’s download
data and compare it with peer institutions so that you can monitor
performance of the repository and the reach of research. There are some FAQs on the IRUS website to help you get started.
More information – read our guide and take part in our webinar
Our guide
summarises these tips in more detail and includes links to many more
sources of information and help. Want to know more? Look out for our
webinar taking place during International Open Access week – 19-25
October.
This piece originally appeared on the Jisc blog and is reposted with the author’s permission.
for the latest set of OA policy developments, including July’s OA policy review by Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the release of the Higher Education and Funding Council for England (HEFCE)’s updated requirements for next year’s Research Excellence Framework (REF). What’s more, as of last month, the Wellcome Trust requires the lead researcher in any project applying for funding to quote an ORCID identifier within their bid.
Image credit: Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy (Flickr CC BY-SA)
As institutions and researchers get to grips with these latest developments, now seems like a good time to offer our findings as a set
of ‘top tips’ for those seeking to make progress in their own OA
journey. Here they are:
Draw up a policy requiring research output availability in line with the REF
Developing a workable policy should be quite straightforward. There are lots of resources to draw on including these guidelines from UNESCO. The Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policiesoffers lots of examples and links to examples that you can browse and even reuse. Jisc’s own OA good practice pathfinder projects
have been working on a range of outputs focused on developing
approaches to implement an effective OA policy. They are summed up in
this recent update. You can also read the REF OA policy itself.
Getting your own policy right will enable your institution to commit
resources and it will help to ensure that academics understand both the
requirements and the benefits of OA practice.
Assess your current position on OA
Explore your institution’s OA preparedness and do the same for its
researchers; workshops and other activities are good ways to break down
barriers and develop a team-working approach. Work up a baseline
assessment so you can identify priority areas to work on first.
The ‘Making Sense’ pathfinder project, run by Oxford Brookes University and associates has created an OA benchmarking tool
to help institutions assess whether they are ready for OA
compliance. Further resources to help in this area are available on the OA good practice project blog.
Get your communications strategy rightFor many a hard-pressed researcher, OA seems to be more about admin
and compliance than anything else. A clear, effective communications
programme will help to ensure that researchers understand the very real
benefits of OA and encourage them to become willingly involved in the
necessary workflows. This is a resource-hungry aspect of OA
implementation, but it brings rich rewards.
You’ll find inspiration in the advocacy toolkit developed by University College London (UCL) and the universities of Nottingham and Newcastle’s ‘Pathways to OA’ pathfinder project. It’s also worth looking at the and it’s worth looking at the examples from other advocacy pathfinder projects.
Setting up a standard OA email mechanism for use by publishers,
academics and other participants in the process pays dividends by
improving communication channels. You will probably need to commit time
and resources to establishing systems to monitor the email address and
manage workflows. UCL, Lancaster, Newcastle and Warwick universities all
employ standard OA emails mechanisms for this purpose.
Resolve the identity issue – implement ORCID
I’ve already mentioned the ORCID system of unique, persistent
personal identifiers. It enables researchers to manage their own
professional identity efficiently and it can help to automate many
processes for their institutions, such as managing and maintaining
records and reporting to the REF.
Jisc has recently brokered a national consortium agreement
to help the UK’s higher education institutions implement it quickly,
cost effectively and with an enhanced level of technical support.
Exploit tools that will help researchers navigate their way around OA policies
Our SHERPA/FACT
service enables researchers to check whether the journal they plan to
publish in is compliant with their research funder’s OA policies. It is a
reasonably straightforward tool that can make it much easier to conduct
checks and avoid mistakes over compliance.
Make sure your repository can support reporting and harvesting of metadata
Standardising the way information is recorded makes it quicker and easier to report to funders and other sector bodies. RIOXX
is a metadata application profile that has been developed to help in
applying consistency to metadata fields and it can now be implemented in
most repositories and Current Research Information Systems (CRISs).
What’s more, having standardised metadata extends the reach of research
by making it easier to discover. We offer extensive technical support to help repositories aiming to adopt RIOXX.
Record article processing charges (APCs) efficiently
Many funders require information on APCs
paid to journals. The same information is vital when you are working
with the growing number of journal publishers who will offset APCs against
journal subscription charges. Recording these charges accurately will
save the institution money and so we have worked with several large
funding bodies, including RCUK and the Wellcome Trust, to develop a single, agreed format.
The ‘GW4′ pathfinder project, run by the University of Bath library and associates at the universities of Bristol, Exeter and Cardiff, has explored OA reporting and APC payment workflows, while the project from Northumbria and Sunderland universities has worked on cost modelling tool for APCs.
Extend open practices to include your APC data
As the market for publication of OA articles develops, every research
institution stands to gain from keener pricing if charging is
transparent. Figshare is a forum on which universities are already sharing cost information. It’s worth joining the conversation.
Add a simple button in your repository to improve reach and impact
The simple act of including a ‘copy request’ button will enable
potential readers to access research from your institution even if it is
not published in OA, and it is very easy to do in most repository
configurations. You’ll need to prime researchers to look out for such
enquiries, but it should be relatively easy for them to fulfil requests
for all but older papers held in the repository. Some considerations
about adding the button are discussed in this blog post by Richard Poynder.
Install a tracker code to make download data available to the IRUS-UK aggregation service
This is a practical way to monitor your own institution’s download
data and compare it with peer institutions so that you can monitor
performance of the repository and the reach of research. There are some FAQs on the IRUS website to help you get started.
More information – read our guide and take part in our webinar
Our guide
summarises these tips in more detail and includes links to many more
sources of information and help. Want to know more? Look out for our
webinar taking place during International Open Access week – 19-25
October.
This piece originally appeared on the Jisc blog and is reposted with the author’s permission.
Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the Impact of Social Science blog, nor of the London School of Economics.
About the AuthorDr Neil Jacobs is
Head of Scholarly Communications Support at Jisc. In this role, he is
responsible for a range of Jisc work that enables UK universities to
implement Open Access efficiently and effectively, reflecting the
policies of UK Government and (inter)national research funders. He is
also involved in Jisc’s negotiations with publishers to transition to
Open Access without excessive cost to universities. He maintains close
ties with UK research funders, libraries, research managers and domain
experts. Neil has been working on Open Access for over 10 years, and in
the library and information profession for over 20 years, covering
policy, economic, technical and organisational aspects of scholarly
communication.
Head of Scholarly Communications Support at Jisc. In this role, he is
responsible for a range of Jisc work that enables UK universities to
implement Open Access efficiently and effectively, reflecting the
policies of UK Government and (inter)national research funders. He is
also involved in Jisc’s negotiations with publishers to transition to
Open Access without excessive cost to universities. He maintains close
ties with UK research funders, libraries, research managers and domain
experts. Neil has been working on Open Access for over 10 years, and in
the library and information profession for over 20 years, covering
policy, economic, technical and organisational aspects of scholarly
communication.
Impact of Social Sciences – Top ten tips for universities seeking to implement Open Access
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