Open Access compliance support service

The Open Access team offers expert guidance and support to help researchers meet both their institutional and funder open access requirements. This includes undergraduate and postgraduate students, professional services staff, education-focused staff, and research-active staff.   

• What we will do
• How this will be delivered
• Important information
• More information

What we will do:

• We will help you understand and meet open access requirements set by funders and the University. 
• We will provide advice on rights, licensing, publishing costs, and compliance throughout the publishing process in relation to open access. 
• We will support you in making informed decisions to increase the visibility, accessibility, and impact of your research. 
• We will manage open access monitoring through Pure, advising on deposit requirements and validating records for compliance. 
• We will assist with Gold OA through publisher agreements or available grants and funds and guide you through the process. 
• We will report on OA compliance for funders (e.g. UKRI, Wellcome, EU), REF, and institutional policies.  
• We will provide guides to enable self-monitoring by Directors of Research and research administrators in Schools. 
• We will lead on OA policy development and provide training, updates, and resources to Schools and researchers.

How this will be delivered:

• We will provide advice on open access options at all stages of the publishing process, including queries about publishing agreements, Pure, and funding. 
• We will respond to enquiries within 2 working days (Monday–Thursday 09:00–17:00, Friday 09:00–12:00). 
• We will offer one-to-one consultations in person or via Microsoft Teams. 
• Resolution times may depend on actions from external parties such as publishers or co-authors.
• We will perform weekly checks on Pure deposits and follow up where compliance is incomplete. 
• We will prioritise outputs that fall under known funder requirements for validation. 
• We will act on Gold OA requests within 2 working days, though final resolution may depend on other departments or external vendors. 
• We will provide compliance guides and tools to support self-monitoring by Schools. 
• We will deliver outreach and training through web content, videos, and School visits. 
• We lead OA policy development and implementation, including the workflows to support our rights retention strategy.

Important information:

• Individual researchers are responsible for creating records of their publications in Pure, depositing files (usually Authors Accepted Manuscripts) and updating records following publication.  
• Authors must provide Date of Acceptance for all articles, and information about underpinning data and funder acknowledgments. 
• Users should respond to requests for information or action from the OA team as soon as possible.  
• Publisher-provided OA: Where any costs may be expected, for example when submitting to a fully OA journal that applies Article Processing Charges, users must contact the OA team before making any commitment to costs.  
• Authors are responsible for checking information available through relevant publisher submission systems or information about publisher agreements the team has provided online.
• For publisher-provided OA relating to books and chapters, where fees are not covered by an external grant, Schools will be expected to contribute to OA costs.

More information is available at https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/research/support/open-research/open-access/