Open Access at Oxford has reached a milestone. Over 10,000 manuscripts were deposited into the University repository ORA in the last year (October 2015-September 2016). This includes ‘back catalogue’ items and other publication types as well as new papers.
Last October Oxford launched its Act on Acceptance service for open access, helping academics and researchers towards the University’s aim of ensuring the widest possible access to its publications. It also enables researchers to comply with the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), which introduced an open access policy in April 2016.
‘Act on Acceptance’ asks authors to deposit manuscripts of newly-accepted articles within 3 months of acceptance. The University aims to minimise the burden on researchers, with the Open Access team processing the deposits and helping with any other requirements. It advises on other funder policies such as the Research Councils UK or the Wellcome Trust, use of block grant funds, and much else besides.
Most of the manuscripts can eventually be released through ORA, thus making freely available many articles which would otherwise have remained behind journal paywalls and hidden to non-subscribers.
It’s Open Access Week. This year it’s about taking concrete steps to make your own work more openly available and encouraging others to do the same. It seems a suitable moment to thank the many Oxford researchers, administrators and librarians involved in our 10,000 steps this past year.
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