Research news

Researchers can find out how to make their publications freely available to people around the world at a series of events across campus next week (22-28 October).

Sussex is taking part in Open Access Week – a national initiative to make publicly funded research accessible to everybody.

The Finch Report published in June 2012 has pushed Open Access up the UK agenda by recommending the large-scale adoption of an ‘author pays’ model for publishing research.  This has been endorsed by the government and Research Councils UK (RCUK).

In response the University is taking steps to support Open Access to research at Sussex, including providing discounted or free publication with Open Access journals and publishers, including BioMed Central, the Royal Society and SAGE Open.

Ian Carter, Director of Research and Enterprise, explains: “Many research funders, including all of the UK research councils, now make Open Access publication a condition of the research that they fund. This can give our research greater visibility and there is evidence to suggest that it can lead to more citations.”

During a series of informal awareness sessions held across campus, staff from the Library will also help researchers at Sussex to:

• publish their work to the University’s online repository, Sussex Research Online
• understand the Open Access requirements of different research funders
• take advantage of discounted Open Access publication charges

For dates of awareness sessions and more information about Open Access Week at Sussex, visit the Library’s web pages.

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