Guidance and resources

We believe that the choice of form of publication and choice of journal should lies with the author in accordance with the principles of academic freedom. We also believe that researcher at Stirling should publish ambitiously and be supported in doing so. You should start thinking about where you aim to publish at the grant application stage, this way any funds needed for open access publishing can be incorporated into your grant application (if the funder allows for these costs). You should also consider what page or figures charges might apply to your article (these are different to article processing charges and there is no central support at present for these costs).

You will most likely know where and how you wish to publish but these resources are also available:

  • Guidance on where to publish
  • Journal Impact Factor - Journal Citation Reports – Assess the impact of a particular journal using Journal Citation Reports.
  • If you are specifically interested in publishing in a gold open access journal, the Directory of Open Access Journals provides a searchable database of 8761 journal titles.
  • Publisher Open Access policies for books and chapters curated by members of UKCORR (UK Council of Research Repositories)

Index:

Checking funder requirements
Checking publisher embargos
Repositories
Sector Information and resources on Open Access
JISC
UK OA Implementation Group
Research Information Network
Licenses
Stirling Contacts

Checking funder requirements

Once you know which journal (or publication method) you wish to submit to you should check what, if any requirements your funder has by:

It is the responsibility of the author to check they are compliant with their funder. However, support is available - please email openaccess@stir.ac.uk.

Checking publisher embargos

You should check the open access permissions of your chosen publisher to ensure the publication method you have chosen allows you to meet the funder requirements. You should check whether the funder allows:

  • Deposit of the final peer reviewed manuscript in a repository
  • What the embargo period for deposit in a repository is
  • Immediate open access via an article processing charge
  • Whether the publisher allows deposit of the article using the Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY)
  • Copyright arrangements

Publisher open access policies can be easily checked via the searchable database Sherpa Romeo maintained by the University of Nottingham

Repositories

It is the University of Stirling policy that all research papers should be deposited in STORRE, this is regardless of whether the publication has already been published in an open access journal. STORRE will take into consideration the policies of publishers and will only make research papers publically available once the embargo period has expired.

There are other disciplinary or funder repositories where you may wish (or be required by the funder) to deposit your research paper, in addition to deposit in STORRE. For example:

A list of repositories is maintained by the Open Access Directory

Sector Information and resources on Open Access

Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)

Has a range of resources available to support open access publishing. These include:

UK Open Access Implementation Group (UKOAIG)

The OAIG aims to increase the rate at which the outputs from UK research are available on open access terms, working with its members which include a small number of universities, JISC, ARMA, PLoS, RCUK, SCONUL, UUK and the Wellcome Trust.

The Group has produced a variety of resources and reports, including:

Research Information Network (RIN)

The RIN provides resources on the implementation of the Finch Report recommendations including the policies of research funders, the REF, books and monographs, copyright and licensing.

Licences (Creative Commons Attribution licence - CC BY)

The Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) is the standard licence used by open access journals. It allows others to distribute, remix, manipulate, and build upon a paper, including commercially, as long as they credit the authors for the original paper. Publication with a CC BY licence is required by RCUK and by the Wellcome Trust in some cases.

RCUK is currently working with JISC and the UK Open Access Implementation Group to produce guidance on the use of CC BY licences, including how to identify effectively third-party material included within a paper licensed under CC BY. In the meantime, further information can be found via http://creativecommons.org/licenses/.

Guide to Creative Commons for Humanities and Social Science monograph authors https://doi.org/10.5920/oapen-uk/ccguide. Also at: http://oapen-uk.jiscebooks.org/ccguide/ with online version and print request details

Guide to open access monograph publishing for arts, humanities and social science researchers https://doi.org/10.5920/oapen-uk/oaguide. Also at: http://oapen-uk.jiscebooks.org/oaguide/ with online version and print request details

Stirling contacts

The University’s open access policy and resources are being coordinated by Information Services and the Research and Enterprise Office. Please contact openaccess@stir.ac.uk with any queries in the first instance.