- Home
- Contact us
- Keeping up to date
- News
- Glossary
- FAQ

- Home »
  - Contact us
  - Keeping up to date
  - OA Blog
  - News
  - Frequently Asked Questions
- Open access resources »
  - Open Access – The Basics
  - Templates
  - Glossary
  - Learn more about OA
  - Finding Open Access Articles and Monographs
  - Finding Creative Commons Media
  - Copyright, Creative Commons and Open Access
  - Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)
  - Embargoes in Open Access
  - OA publication routes (Gold, green etc).
  - Open Monographs
  - PrePrints
  - Rights retention at Oxford
  - Self-deposit ‘green’ OA, repositories, and depositing
- OA at Oxford »
  - University policies and message
  - What do I need to do at Oxford
  - Oxford publisher deals »
    - Springer Nature Negotiations at Oxford 2023-24
  - University of Oxford – supporting open initiatives
  - Symplectic elements at Oxford
  - Rights retention
  - Applying for Oxford’s OA Block Grants
  - DPhil students and Open Access at Oxford
  - ORCID at Oxford
- Funds & Funders »
  - Funds held at Oxford »
    - UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
    - Wellcome Trust
    - The British Heart Foundation
    - Cancer Research UK
    - Applying for Oxford’s OA Block Grants
  - Other funders »
    - Blood Cancer UK
    - The British Academy
    - ERC and The European Commission
    - Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
    - Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation
    - John Fell Fund
    - Leverhulme trust
    - National Institute for Health Research
    - National Institutes of Health (USA)
    - Parkinson’s UK
    - The Royal Society
    - Versus Arthritis
  - Unfunded researchers
  - Rights retention
  - Oxford Publisher Deals »
    - Springer Nature Negotiations at Oxford 2023-24
    - [Archived for posterity] Elsevier Negotiation at Oxford 2020-22
  - cOAlition S and Plan S
- REF 2021
- Training & Events »
  - Training and Events
  - Oxford Festival of Open Scholarship
- FAQ

# Act on acceptance agreed by Oxford for next REF

June 29, 2015
by JulietR
0 Comment

The University’s plans for implementing HEFCE open access policy for the next REF have moved forward since it approved:

1. The requirement for all academics and researchers employed anywhere in the collegiate University to ‘act on acceptance’ of all journal articles and conference proceedings.

2. The use of Symplectic Elements as the sole route for academics and researchers to advise (record) when journal articles or conference proceedings have been accepted for publication, and provide Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAMs).

This applies regardless of whether the papers have been or will be lodged in other repositories.

At its meeting on 18 June, Research Committee welcomed and endorsed the OA Project Group report which set out the findings and recommendations of the recent pilot around deposit methods into the institutional repository ORA and communications.

The pilot evaluated 3 methods of depositing articles and conference proceedings: a web form in ORA, a web form in Symplectic Elements, and email to ORA. Between March and May 2015, 180 manuscripts were received from 120 pilot users, across all three routes.

Symplectic Elements was not only an effective and robust deposit route into ORA, it was the only route able to collect the information that HEFCE requires as part of the next REF submission, reduce duplication of effort for Oxford co-authors, and offer a compliance monitoring tool.

Adopting a single deposit route minimises the risks for compiling the next REF return.

##### When do we start?

The OA Project Group is developing a communications and action plan for ‘Act on Acceptance’ which will launch in September 2015. This is to enable local and University-wide practices to be embedded sufficiently in advance of 1 April 2016 to ensure compliance by the start of the policy.

The pilot departments who are already using the new Symplectic form should continue to deposit this way; there is no need to stop.

Symplectic accounts for everyone else are being set up over the summer. Please wait to be notified of your new account; there is no need to submit a user request.

The ‘act on acceptance’ requirement does not apply to research students. While DPhils may publish outputs that are later submitted to REF, those produced while the author was a student are exempt.

Note that for theses, book chapters, or data, or any other research outputs, direct deposit into ORA continues to be available.

##### Further information

Click here to view the HEFCE policy.

If you have any questions please contact our email helpline: open-access-enquiries@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

About the Author
Social Share

### Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Logged in as Sarah Humphreys. Log out?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

### Quick Links

Contact us
Deposit your Work - Act on Acceptance
Keep up to date - Mailing lists and resources
Funded Researchers - Check requirements and apply for APCs
Symplectic- Symplectic Elements at Oxford Sign up for an ORCID - ORCID at Oxford FAQ - Answers to your questions
Glossary - Key Terms Explained

### Latest News

The new Open Access Oxford website is set to go live 04/09/2023
Aug 23, 2023
UKRI Open Monographs update
Jun 22, 2023
DOIs and ORA
May 22, 2023

### Open Access at the University of Oxford

Open Access at the University of Oxford is overseen by the OA Steering Group which is accountable to the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Research & Innovation Committee.

### Site Feedback

If you have any feedback on how the site could be more useful then please email the Open Access Enquiry team at the address below.
Email : openaccess@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

### Copyright

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. (c) 2013, The University of Oxford.
Images are copyright (c) Zoe Power. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy
Skip to toolbar
Log Out