Open access in this context means research literature that can be freely accessed by anyone in the world via the internet so that it can be used without licensing restrictions for research, teaching or other purposes.
Open access to research increases its visibility, reaching a wider audience and therefore increasing its potential for:
citation
enhancing reputation
greater impact
attracting potential collaborators, funders and students
compliance with funder requirements
sharing knowledge from publicly funded research.
Scholarly norms for attribution still apply to open access publications, so authors should always be properly acknowledged. Copyright also applies, and the rights-holder (often the publisher) controls the right to permit open access.
The world of scholarly publishing is constantly changing and can be tricky to navigate. Check out the Quick answers section below for answers to common questions and visit our Help & support section to find out who to contact for more specific advice.
Quick answers
The University overall preference is for Green OA—that is, self-archiving your accepted manuscript in Pure. However, the institutional OA policy distinguishes Diamond OA (a form of Gold OA without fees to authors or readers) as a suitable alternative.
There will also be cases where Gold OA under a publishing agreement is available. However, the costs associated with Gold OA are not sustainable for either researcher or the Library, and so researchers are asked to keep this in mind when making publishing decisions.
An article must meet all criteria for an agreement to be identified as eligible by the publisher and for the corresponding author to be offered the correct licensing options:
The journal must be eligible
The article type must be eligible. This generally means the original research type but types vary between agreements and you should check the full agreement criteria on our agreements and partnerships web page if you are in any doubt
The corresponding author must have St Andrews as their primary affiliation and meet any eligibility criteria
More information can be found on our agreements page, including eligible journals and article types, as well as detailed instructions on how to be included.
You can also search using the Jisc Open Policy Finder tool.
In addition to our publishing agreements, there are several funds available, which are listed on our open access costs page. Your eligibility for these funds will depend on a number of factors, including the open access model of the journal itself, the article type, and the funding you have access to. On our open access costs page, you can find more information.
If the journal is hybrid or subscription-based, however, you can also opt for rights retention and the Green open access route, which incurs no fees and allows you to deposit your accepted manuscript in Pure with no embargo and with Creative Commons licensing applied.
Use of publisher agreements is usually considered as a benefit reserved for current staff and students of the University. Corresponding author eligibility criteria differ between agreements/funds and honorary staff with no formal contract are not automatically eligible.
Academic publishing does not always involve a cost; it largely depends on the specific circumstances and eligibility should not be assumed.
For fully open access model publishing not covered by an agreement access to the library open access fund (LOAF) would depend on other factors such as co-authors who are current members of staff and availability of funds.
If there is no funder policy that applies to your work, books and chapters don’t need to be made open access and you can agree a standard copyright transfer agreement or licence to publish.
If your book or chapter acknowledges UKRI, Wellcome Trust or other funder with an open access long-form requirement you should follow their policy to make a suitable version of your work open access or apply for funding to achieve open access.
If you have a contract with a fully open access model publisher and would like an application for a partial subvention to be considered, please review our Library Open Access Fund guidance before applying.
Who owns the copyright in research publications?
Authors own the copyright to their scholarly works. The University’s Intellectual Property (IP) Policy explicitly waives ownership of staff publications, allowing researchers to sign agreements with publishers, which may assign copyright to the publication, depending on the journal or publishing model.
A CC BY licence allows the maximum reuse of work while giving appropriate credit to authors. It avoids limitations on downstream use such as translation or some educational settings.
CC BY is the required licence for most major funders and the University.
Research works are frequently the result of collaboration with researchers who are not employed by the University of St Andrews. If you are collaborating with external authors, you should inform your co-authors of your requirements and send appropriate text to the corresponding/submitting author. If strict compliance turns out not to be feasible, alternative options can be explored with the help of our Open Access team openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.
Help and support
The Open Access team offers support and information on many different aspects of open access, they can:
provide advice and support to researchers on making their research freely available, advise on options
provide guidance on licensing, versions, and individual publisher deals
offer advice on funding available to pay open access fees
advise on accessing Read and Publish and legacy agreements
help develop local networks and expertise within Schools
The Open Research blog is a useful resource for the latest policy announcements and updates and features a variety of posts on all things open at St Andrews and beyond.
The Open Access team are keen to work with Schools to develop efficient mechanisms for deposit in Pure. If you would like the team to visit your School or Department, or for any other questions you may have, please email openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.