Open Access Policy
The àËÅöÊÓƵ is committed to promoting the highest standard of academic research and to disseminating its research as widely as possible. Research that is openly accessible supports the visibility of researchers and their work across all career stages, fosters collaboration and maximises the intellectual, social, cultural and economic impact.
The àËÅöÊÓƵ is committed to advocating Open Access across its operations and activities, as the right choice for a fair, sustainable and open future, advancing open knowledge as a design principle beyond data.
The University supports the principle that the outcomes of research generated under its aegis should be freely available and accessible to all, while acknowledging its commitment to the academic freedom of choice and supporting its research community to publish in the form and format they consider most appropriate for their research.
The University recognises the different disciplinary research cultures and acknowledges that Open Access may look different across the University.
This Policy aims to be closely aligned with the expectations of the University’s funders and in particular UKRI.
This Policy is part of the University Code of Good Conduct in Research and is to be read in conjunction with the University research policies and guidance, in particular the Open Access Guidance, and the Research Data Management Policy and Guidance.
Open Access Policy Overview
Mandate
All University Researchers are asked to make, where possible, their scholarly work publicly available by depositing it as soon as possible after it has been accepted in the institutional repository SAS-Space.sas.ac.uk , within any applicable constraints of confidentiality or obligations to third parties including commercial research partners.
Scholarly work includes Journal Articles and Long-form publications.
The use of Rights Retention Statements where needed is encouraged to achieve this type of open access.
The full text must be accessible. All research outputs should have a unique identifying marker such as a DOI when deposited in the institutional repository. University affiliation and source of funding should be clearly acknowledged on all research outputs
Who does it apply to?
This Policy applies to all staff, research students and fellows of the University engaged in research solely or in collaboration with others. It also applies to individuals, contractors and collaborators conducting research on behalf of the University, regardless of location.
Exceptions
The exceptions to this Policy are outlined in the above document. However, such scholarly work should aim to be submitted to the institutional repository as ‘closed deposits’, to meet the discovery requirements, unless the output represents a security or personal risk.
Open Access
Open access refers to material that is free at the point of access and licensed for reuse, so readers can use, reuse and share research easily.
Open access gives more exposure for your work, greater impact, compliance, improve community engagement and knowledge exchange.
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How can I make my output OA?
Articles before publication, short-form outputs (journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, working papers, other scholarly outputs), long-form outputs (theses, monographs and edited collections), research data, can all be made Open Access.
There is a variety of routes available for journal articles, conference proceedings and long-form publications. The University favours the Green Route, but there are also other options such as Diamond or Hybrid options.
The available options at the àËÅöÊÓƵ have been summarised in the workflows available here: url to the guidance page
But the rule of thumb is:
- Find an open access publisher (Book publishers ; Journal publishers or )
- Check the funder’s requirements (can you please add this link in brackets: or or even )
- Seek out advice and support (you are not alone). For more information please see the Advice and Support section on this page.
Further details are available on the Open Access Guidance page.
Funding sources matters
- Internally funded
Please check the UOL OA policy which advocate Green route.
Staff may be allowed exceptionally to make a case for financial support. Any request made does not guarantee approval. Go to the Open Access Guidance page.
For avoidance of doubt, no OA costs are to be covered locally.
- Externally funded
Please check funders’ policies.
If Funders do not fund OA as a direct cost, but the grants bring in overheads, the overheads might be used to cover the cost.
If Funders cannot support OA costs at all, please favour Green or Diamond or Hybrid options. For avoidance of doubt, no OA costs are to be covered locally.
The Institutional repository is currently SAS-Space which holds research outputs including publications, theses and research data. All àËÅöÊÓƵ members can access the repository with their UOL credentials. Any problem should be reported to SAS-Space.Info@sas.ac.uk
You can review the license that is relevant to your work. ()
Each researcher agrees to grant the àËÅöÊÓƵ a non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free licence to make the accepted manuscripts of their outputs publicly available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence or alternative licence where necessary. But for other materials, it may be more appropriate such as CC-BY-ND.
All information given as part of the deposit will form the output metadata which is very important as it provides additional chance of visibility and searchability to the output.
Research Data must be formatted to ensure accessibility.
As per the Policy, all research staff at the University needs to have an ORCID ID. This is a unique identifier that links the researcher with their research. Full details on can be found on their website. This will enable you and the University to keep track of all research publications made under your name. Your ORCID ID is yours to keep throughout your career.
Where possible existing DOI's should be included on any deposit to SAS-Space (when known). DOI's (Digital object identifier) is a stable URL that identifies research objects on the internet and is usually attached to articles and other types of research outputs.
We also have a system that allows the University to get DOI reference numbers on behalf of researchers. If you have a digital object that does not otherwise have a DOI (or will have a DOI) then you may request a DOI for that object by email: SAS-Space.Info@sas.ac.uk cc: research@london.ac.uk
Any advice or clarification can be sought here open.research@london.ac.uk
Additional resources can be found on the Open Access Guidance page.