Staff in the Library and in Research and Enterprise are working to keep Sussex researchers up to date with the practical aspects of making their research Open Access (OA) and complying with RCUK (Research Councils UK) policy.

The RCUK’s policy on OA, which came into force on 1 April 2013, states that research papers resulting from research that is wholly or partially funded by the Research Councils should be published in journals that are compliant with their policy on Open Access.

Open Access means providing unrestricted internet access to peer-reviewed research outputs. As a result, the potential readership of an OA article is far greater than one where the full text is restricted to subscribers. By increasing the number of readers, article citations also significantly grow.

Use the decision tree on the Library’s Open Access web pages to find out more about how to make your work Open Access. This will guide you through the different routes available, point towards useful resources for checking the compliance of particular journals, and advise on how to request the funds for any charges.

To support their OA policy, RCUK have introduced a new funding mechanism: a block grant to universities to support the cost of article processing charges. Principal Investigators (PIs) of RCUK-funded projects should contact the Research Support team in the Library to check whether funds are available for their publication.

If you are a researcher who is not funded by the research councils but would like to make your work OA, you should seek funding within your school. Your Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange will be able to provide information on what funding is available to support the OA publication of outputs that are not funded by a research council.

For further information, contact the Library Research Support team: E library.researchsupport@sussex.ac.uk.

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