Open Access for non-funded researchers
How can I publish OA if I am not funded?
One easy way to make your work Open Access (OA) is to take the Green route and deposit the accepted version on Elements to SRO. Your publisher may specify an embargo period before the item can be made freely available, but once this is over your item will be free for anyone to download and easy for you to promote and share. Thousands of items are downloaded from SRO each month by visitors from all over the world. We encourage all Sussex authors to add the accepted version of their journal article to SRO at the point of acceptance.
If you would like to take the Gold OA route and make your work immediately available through the journal website, you could start by looking at our Institutional Open Access Deals and Discounts page.
The PGR Open Access fund
The Library has set aside a small Open Access (OA) fund to help Sussex PGRs publish their research in pure Gold OA-only journals when no other funding source is available. This fund comes from the Library's off-setting deals with publishers, which are subject to change every year, and therefore funding cannot be guaranteed in perpetuity.
The following conditions apply:
- PGRs registered at the University of Sussex can publish their own work in pure Gold OA only journals (not hybrid)* where the journal chosen is the most appropriate publication for their research. In cases of co-authored papers, the PGR should be in a key role on the paper.
- Requests will be considered on a first come, first served basis, limited to one per person and use of the funds should be confirmed before the author commits to publishing in a pure Gold OA only journal and agrees to pay an APC, as payment from this fund cannot be guaranteed.
* Pure Gold OA only journals publish all their content as OA, no subscription is required, and an article processing charge is usually applied. Hybrid journals are subscription journals which offer the option of Gold OA, for which the author is required to pay an article processing fee, but also allow authors to make their papers OA via the Green route. Please contact us if you are unsure of a journal's status.
Request to use the PGR OA fund
To find out if you are eligible, contact us as early as possible in the process on 01273 877553 or openaccess@sussex.ac.uk with the details of your paper (title/journal/list of authors). We will then confirm eligibility for using the fund to make the payment for Gold OA.
Separate to this fund, the Library has arranged a number of institutional memberships and publisher initiatives allowing researchers affiliated with the University of Sussex to publish free of charge, or at a discounted rate. For further details, please see the Institutional Open Access Deals and Discounts page.
Further information
Contact the Library Open Access team for support on 01273 877553 or openaccess@sussex.ac.uk.