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# One year countdown to HEFCE REF OA policy

April 01, 2015
by JulietR
0 Comment

One year from today HEFCE’s OA policy for the next REF takes effect. For journal articles & conference papers accepted from 1 April 2016: deposit ‘author accepted manuscript’ in a repository within 3 months of acceptance; make it open access within 12 months of publication (science & medicine) / 24 months of publication (humanities & social science).

As part of Oxford’s preparations, our pilot is busily testing new ‘quick deposit’ into ORA. During March, 58 manuscripts were deposited, across the 3 methods. A big thank you to our volunteer departments and researchers, keep up the good work and keep sending your feedback!

A regular question asked at our briefings is Do I have to go Gold for REF?

Answer: No. In fact the policy‘s focus is very much on the green route.

Although HEFCE FAQ says the version assessed for the REF will be the final published one, this doesn’t mean it has to have been published as open access; a subscription journal is equally valid. Either way the key point is deposit of final peer-reviewed version in a repository. Gold OA by itself doesn’t make it REF-compliant.

Remember that HEFCE policy sits alongside and does not supersede other funders’ OA requirements, which researchers should continue to meet. Check Sherpa JULIET to see if your funder has an OA policy. If they do, they often provide funds to support it; if they don’t have one, all you need to bother about is HECFE. There’s no need to go Gold just for the REF. To misquote Gordon Gekko, ‘Green is good’. As good as gold.

Meanwhile the university is working on an OA service enabling easy REF compliance for our researchers. Research Committee will evaluate our pilot’s findings next term and instructions to departments will follow by September 2015. No immediate action is yet required by Oxford researchers.

Please contact our OA enquiry team for help, information or advice on REF policy or any other OA topic: email open-access-enquiries@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

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