Open Access
Open Access makes research freely available on the internet to anyone with an interest in your work, increasing usage and raising your profile.
Information about:
"Open Access has the potential to make scientific communication more efficient and effective, creating benefits for researchers, universities and society in general. Open Access also means that outputs can make a greater impact in the research community and beyond." Stephen Pinfield, Chief Information Officer
Raising your profile
Did you know that Open Access can significantly raise your profile by removing the barriers to accessing information and making knowledge freely available to all?
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Open Access can increase the number of readers and citations to the article.
Case Study
Ray Frost, a chemist at Queensland University of Technology in Australia deposited around 300 of his papers in his institutional repository.
Data from the Web of Science shows that from 2000 to 2003, citations to his papers were averaging about 300 per year. When Frost started putting his articles into the institutional repository, citations increased, with the latest count being 1200 in one year.
More information on this case study is available from OASIS. For more information about how Open Access can increase citations, visit PLOS Biology and The Open Citation Project.
This increases the potential readership of an article or book chapter many times compared to traditional publication in a journal where the full-text is restricted to subscribers
Case Study
A search on Google for 'chronolinguistics' finds research published by The University of Nottingham’s Peter Stockwell first in the list of results. The paper published in Nottingham Linguistic Circular may not be widely available to other libraries in its published form. However, anyone in the world can easily search for and find this research without the need for any subscriptions. Search engines like Google will search and find papers that have been uploaded to institutional repositories, increasing the potential readership.
"I like putting my work out because it gets almost instant comment and discussion from the broad academic community of researchers and students all over the world." Professor Peter Stockwell
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Open Access reduces barriers to access and increases visibility for the researcher
No research institution can afford all the journals its researchers may need, so articles may be losing research impact.
Libraries are finding it increasingly difficult to subscribe to new titles or retain titles and reduced subscriptions leads to reduced visibility of your research.
For more information, see Scientific Journals International. The Open-Access Movement: Dysfunctional practices in the journal publishing system, 2010.
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Open Access can increase your international visibility
Research can often be limited to its country of publication. Typically, in the UK subscriptions may be taken for UK-published journals; in Australia to Australian-published journals; in the USA to US-published journals and so on. Developing countries find it even more difficult to subscribe to a wide range of journals. Open Access material however can be easily found using search engines, is free to download and therefore has more worldwide impact.
Increased access and visibility can result in more awareness of individuals and their research interests, bringing researchers together in collaborative environments.
Nottingham ePrints
Did you know that the University has a repository where you can deposit or self-archive your published articles and conference papers?
Visit Nottingham ePrints, a digital archive of research papers from The University of Nottingham authors.
Why should you deposit?
Making material openly accessible through a repository allows it to be found by internet search engines. This increases readership, use and impact, and results in earlier and more frequent citations.
How do you deposit?
Depositing is easy. Full instructions are available on the Nottingham ePrints website.
Your submission will be checked and, after a few days will appear in the public archive.
It’s that simple. But if you need assistance don’t be afraid to ask your faculty librarian.
Does your publisher allows you to deposit your article?
Many do. The University runs a website that lists the policies of over 700 publishers from around the world. Visit RoMEO to find out whether your publisher will let you deposit your article before or after peer review, and/or the publisher’s PDF of the final version.
Are you a PhD student?
If so, don’t forget you will be able to put your completed thesis online in just the same way through Nottingham eTheses.
Would you like to do more with your articles?
Typically agreements between authors and publishers hand over copyright exclusively to the publisher. The author may not even put a copy on his or her own website. But it is possible to negotiate non-exclusive agreements that will allow greater freedom to the author and still safeguard the rights that the publisher needs. If you would like to do this, take a look at the Copyright Toolbox where you will find advice and sample wording for non-exclusive agreements.
For more advice, ideas and information visit SPARC Europe.
Mandates and Funding
Did you know that both the University and research funders mandate Open Access and that the University has a fund that can help you with the costs?
Research funders’ mandates
As a condition of grant, many research funders require authors to make their research outputs available through Open Access.
The UK Research Councils (RCUK) publish guidance on the distribution of research outputs, and individual Research Councils have also released their own more detailed policies including
Open Access requirements.
The Wellcome Trust has a
policy on Open Access which requires grant holders to submit an electronic copy of final manuscripts of research papers to
UK PubMed Central (UKPMC).
For advice, view the
Research Outputs and Funder Policies document (PDF), which outlines the responsibilities of The University of Nottingham researchers to provide Open Access.
Find out about your research funder's Open Access policy by searching
JULIET for your funder.
The University of Nottingham’s Open Access Policy
The University has had a policy since November 2009 which requires academic staff to make their research outputs Open Access wherever possible:
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All research papers (including journal articles, conference procedings, book chapters and similar material), where copyright allows, should be made available in an open access form upon publication.
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All research papers (either in the form of the author's final manuscript or the formally-published version), where copyright allows, should be deposited in theNottingham ePrints repository upon publication or as soon as possible thereafter.
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Where available, researchers should take advantage of opportunities to publish their work in an open access form offered by journal publishers, and can make use of research grants and/or the central Open Access publication fund, in order to pay open access publication fees.
The University of Nottingham’s Open Access Publishing Fund
The University has a central Open Access publishing fund, which is available to any member of UK based staff who wishes to make their research output freely and openly accessible, regardless of their source of funding or research area.
What does this mean?
Money is available to you if you choose to make a publication Open Access. This can be either a completely Open Access journal or a hybrid Open Access option through a standard publisher (publication costs range between £250 and £2500 per article).
When making a grant application, Open Access publication fees should be included. However, for applications not covered by a research grant or for costs outside the lifetime of the project, The University of Nottingham Central Fund can cover these.
For more information email Jacqueline Anderson.
More information about the Open Access publishing fund is available. [University of Nottingham access only]
Open Nottingham
Did you know that educational resources from the University are available worldwide?
Open Nottingham is a programme of work encouraging increased use, reuse and publication of Open Educational Resources (OER) by staff and students across the University. It aims to improve the understanding of the impact that OERs have on teaching and learning, and measures the effectiveness of open resources to promote individual academics and Schools. The University has had an OER presence since the launch of the
U-Now website in 2007.
The Open Nottingham programme supports the University’s commitment to social responsibility and excellence in education. It also contributes to internationalisation: fostering the spread of knowledge without borders.
How to find Open Nottingham resources:
The University has a number of services to help staff and students to:
For more information about Open Nottingham email the Open Learning Support Officer, Steven Stapleton.
Manuscripts and Special Collections
Did you know that there is a wealth of online material from our own University collections available for all to use?
Here are just a few things you can do:
Proof of DH Lawrence's Odour of Chrysanthemums
Extract from the 4th Duke of Newcastle's diary
There are many other resources freely available on the Manuscripts and Special Collections website.
Archives are a rich resource for research. To find out about archive collections elsewhere in England and Wales, visit the Access to Archives website.
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