COMPLIANCE WITH FUNDERS’ MANDATES – FACTPeter Millington, Jane Smith,

Azhar Hussain & Bill HubbardSHERPA Services, Centre for Research Communications,

University of Nottingham, UK

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

Research funders in the UK• Government funded research– Research Councils UK (RCUK) - over £2.8 billion p.a.

• Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)• Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

(BBSRC) • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council• Economic and Social Research Council• Medical Research Council• Natural Environment Research Council• Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)

• Research charities– Wellcome Trust – over £600 million p.a.

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

Recent developments

• Finch Report, June 2012– Working group chaired by Dame Janet Finch– Expanding access to published research findings– Recommendations:• Gold OA, suitably funded• Minimal restrictions on re-use

• Continuing political debate– Houses of Commons and Lords• Select Committees on open access

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

New common open access policy• RCUK and the Wellcome Trust– Effective from 1st April 2013

• Choice of two routes:– Publish with open access (gold)– Self-archive in an open access repository (green)

• Open access publications– CC-BY licence required

• Self-archiving:– Accepted version or better– Embargoes of 6 or 12 months tolerated– Non-commercial re-use allowed

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

Mandate variations• Open access publication– MRC & Wellcome – publisher deposit in Europe PMC

• Tolerated embargoes– 6 months, except…– 12 months for AHRC & ESRC

• Archiving in…– Any appropriate open access repository, except…– MRC & Wellcome Trust - Europe PMC– ESRC – ESRC Research Catalogue

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

Funding open access publication

• Block grants to universities’ open access funds– Primarily to cover article processing charges– Other activities relevant to the mandate

• Grants rising to cover 75% of articles by year 5– Rest Green

• Amounts vary according to funding totals– RCUK: £6k to £1.15m in year 1– e.g. Nottingham - £536k + other funding

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

Transitional arrangements for RCUK

• OA funds increasing over 5 years• APC grants might run out in early years• Double embargo tolerated (except for MRC)– If there is a compliant Gold option– and APC funds are not available

• This caused some confusion, so…

Publishers’ Association’s flow chartIs Gold option

Available?

Yes No

Are APC fundsAvailable?

Yes No

Green OA after6 or 12 months

Green OA after12 or 24 months

Immediate Gold OA

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

Revised transitional arrangements

SHERPA/FACTGuidance for authors

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

Complexity of funders’ policies• Requirement for Gold and/or Green OA– Preference if both allowed

• Gold open access– Min. CC licence required– Must Gold OA automatically archive in PMC?

• Green open access– Min. (earliest) article version required– Min. CC licence required– Max. tolerated embargo– Are specific repositories required?

• Are funds available for APCs?

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

Complexity of publishers’ policies• Gold open access

– Is the journal an open access or hybrid journal?– What CC licence is it published under?– What are the fees (if any)?

• Green– Does the author retain copyright?– Can the Accepted and/or Publisher’s version/PDF be archived?– Is there an embargo? Does it comply with the funder’s policy?– Are there special arrangements

• For the specific funder? For funders generally?– Is the journal a full member of Europe PMC?

• Are all the publisher’s policies clearly defined?• Are the publisher’s policies known at all?

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

“Pity the researcher”

• Funders’ mandates versus publishers’ policies.– So many combinations and permutations!

• Information professionals can struggle• How can the poor academic cope?• Authors need a simple guide to compliance– Interpreting RoMEO data, not just displaying it

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

Compliance screen layout

Overall compliance

Gold compliance

Green

How/Why

Funder’s recommendation

Information& Advice

Links for further information, feedback, etc

Decision trails

Non-compliant journal

Cautionary advice

Europe PMC Memberfor MRC and the Wellcome Trust

No special action required!

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

Development issues• Parsing data from RoMEO - more standardisation• Data new to RoMEO – e.g. Gold CC licences• Greater journal level granularity• RCUK’s transitional extended embargoes• Highly complex algorithms– Each decision yields Yes, No, Maybe or Unknown– Hundreds of combinations and permutations

• Generic design for additional funders• API – alpha version

Potential compliance

Example statistics from SHERPA/FACT

Potential Wellcome Trust compliance

WT potential compliance timeline

Potential NERC Compliance

Response of interested parties

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

The response of publishers• Generally positive

– But also “We’re losing business”• Discussions with funders and universities

– Sometimes negotiating special arrangements• Face to face dialogue with SHERPA Services

– How to ensure compliance – e.g. Emerald, Elsevier, Sage, etc.• Notification of updated policies and errors for RoMEO• Open access policy adjustments

– Introducing gold options where necessary– CC licences & Embargo periods

• Maximising profit– Encouraging or forcing use of the Gold option– Elsevier & Emerald’s ‘interesting’ embargoes & RCUK’s transition

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

The Response of Universities• Research managers– Like the extra crock of gold

• Repository administrators– Good uptake of SHERPA/FACT– Interested in accuracy – lots of feedback– Wish to customise FACT for local contexts

• Asserting academic freedom to choose– Where to publish– Gold OA, Green OA or neither

• Gold versus Green preferences– Funders and many publishers prefer Gold– Some universities prefer Green…

Battle of the flow chartsIs Green option

Available?

Yes No

Are APC fundsAvailable?

Green OA after12 or 24 months

Green OA after6 or 12 months

Immediate Gold OA

Is Gold optionAvailable?

Green OA after12 or 24 months

Yes No

Yes No

How will open access fundsbe utilised?

Ratio of compliant OA routes (NERC)

Maximising profit for publishers

What some universities want

What funders are aiming for

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact/• Technical development– Peter Millington –

peter.millington@nottingham.ac.uk• RoMEO & FACT data– Jane H.Smith – jane.h.smith@nottingham.ac.uk

• Project management– Azhar Hussain – azhar.hussain@nottingham.ac.uk

• Director, Centre for Research Communications– Bill Hubbard – bill.hubbard@nottingham.ac.uk

• Thanks to:– Mark Thorley, RCUK– Robert Kiley, Wellcome Trust