Open Access Publishing
The Open Access (OA) Publishing Fund is a new initiative that will enhance the impact of Brunel research by increasing the number of publications by Brunel academics that are freely available. The articles that have been supported by the fund are available on BURA, Brunel’s institutional repository . Studies have shown that OA articles are cited more often than articles that are only available in subscription-based sources.
OA mandates have been or are being introduced by an increasing number of research funders as a condition of their grants. The first round of projects funded by grants that included the new mandates are now coming to an end and funders are seeking greater compliance as the resulting research is published. The new fund will help Brunel authors to comply with their funders' mandates. (More information about the policies of research funders is available on the SHERPA Juliet website).
What is Open Access publishing?
The aim of OA publishing is to make primary, peer-reviewed literature available, free of charge at the point of use.
There are two main routes to making research material available through open access. The first is to deposit a copy of a research article into an OA repository such as BURA.
The second route is to publish the article in an OA journal or in a traditional journal that provides an OA option (referred to as a hybrid journal). OA journals work in the same way as traditional models, i.e. they are peer-reviewed, but the costs of publishing are paid for by the author (via author fees) rather than the reader (via individual or library subscriptions). The Brunel OA Publishing Fund is intended to facilitate Brunel authors' access to this second route by paying the relevant publication fees.
Lists of OA journals are available via the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and Open J-Gate which can also be used to search for articles in the OA journal literature. Hybrid OA journals are now offered by a number of publishers including Oxford University Press, the Royal Society, Springer and others.
Brunel University is an institutional member of BioMed Central entitling Brunel staff to discounts on the publication charges for BMC journals.
Applying to the Brunel OA Publishing Fund
The OA Publishing Fund is open to all members of Brunel University, regardless of their source of research funding but priority will be given to staff that do not have external funding for publication costs. The fund is available to support Open Access charges (for OA or hybrid journals) – it cannot be used to pay page or colour charges in non-OA journals. Staff can apply for multiple grants in any one year but where funds are limited priority will be given to staff that are submitting their first application.
Authors of articles that are funded should request a Licence to publish from the relevant publisher rather than signing a standard copyright transfer agreement. The JISC and SURF (the equivalent organisation in the Netherlands) have created a licence to publish that authors can use to retain the copyright in their own works while giving the journal or book publisher the rights to publish their work. The site also provides sample wording for various options in case an author or a publisher would like to amend a publishing agreement in certain circumstances.
Staff that receive funding will also be expected to deposit the relevant publications in BURA.
Please use the Application Form to submit a bid for funding for an OA publication (Brunel Staff only). Where possible, applications should be submitted before the relevant articles are submitted to the journal.
Completed applications for funding should be submitted by email to Lorna Mitchell, the Assistant Library Director (Academic Support). Please also contact Lorna (ext 66146) if you have any questions about the OA Publishing Fund.
