This is the 2nd in the series of scenarios. We meet an MRC-funded Oxford University Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Professor. Professor Smith has published two papers since 1 April 2013, when the RCUK policy on Open Access came into effect. In the example provided below Professor Smith was able to publish her paper Open Access via the ‘green’ route.
Professor Smith, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, supports the idea that research funded by taxpayers’ money should be made available open access. However, the access status of a particular journal is not her main criterion in deciding where to publish. When publishing she always asks members of her team: “Who do you want to read your paper?”
– “It is all about visibility, impact within communities and fit to the subject”, she says.
Professor Smith favours the Green route to Open Access and tries to “go Green” whenever possible i.e. self-archive the accepted manuscript for free public use in a repository, which is also Oxford University’s recommendation. Indeed, she has been doing this for quite some time now – the Wellcome Trust, one of her main funders, had required electronic copies of papers to be made available through PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC) long before the RCUK policy on Open Access came into effect.
Professor Smith’s first publication after 1 April was in Nature Communications and her research was funded by MRC. She used the SHERPA Romeo service to check the publisher’s requirements. She learned that she can submit her accepted, peer-reviewed manuscript to the relevant funding body’s subject repository, for release six months after publication.
Since MRC requires researchers to make their research output available via Europe PMC “within six months”, Professor Smith was able to “go Green” and thereby comply with her funder by depositing accepted manuscript for release six months after official publication. Professor Smith was glad to find out that similarly to Europe PMC, the University’s own Oxford Research Archive (ORA) allows the embargo to be set at point of deposit.
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