Open Research

• Acceptance date: The date you received the email from the journal or publisher confirming acceptance, please save this email (as a PDF preferably) to the record you create in Insight. This date is essential for calculating OA compliance.
• Article Processing Charges (APCs): This is a fee paid to the publisher to make an article immediately OA at the point of publication with the publisher's in-house formatting applied. Most often associated with the Gold Open Access route.
• Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAMs): The AAM is the final version of an academic article or other publication - after it has been peer-reviewed and revised into its final form by the author, but before the publisher has applied in-house formatting. 
• Creative Commons: Creative Commons licences (e.g. CC-BY) are one of the primary types of public copyright licences used when publishing Open Access. 
• Diamond Open Access: This involves you publishing in an open access journal without a fee being paid to a publisher. In OA terminology this fee is known as an Article Processing Charge or APC. A good example of the diamond route are the journals included in the Directory of Open Access Journals. Diamond equals no cost to the you or the University.
• Embargo: An embargo in academic publishing is a period during which access to a research publication self-archived in an open access repository (Green open access) is restricted. The length of an embargo is decided by the publisher of the work and tends to commence at the point of publication. Please note that some funders, including UKRI (from 01/04/2022), are requiring immediate open access i.e. no embargo.
• Gold Open Access: This involves you, or the University, paying an APC to a publisher to make a research output immediately open access at the point of publication. APCs can range from hundreds to thousands of pounds per output.
• Green Open Access: This is currently the University's preferred route and it involves you self-archiving the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version of your academic article or other publication into a repository such as the University's research outputs repository (called Insight). Green equals no cost to the you or the University. 
• Insight: The University of Cumbria's Institutional Research Outputs Repository. https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/
• JISC: Joint Information Systems Committee - A not-for-profit company  whose role is to support UK institutions of higher education and research. https://www.jisc.ac.uk/open-access
• Open Access: Publishing open access (OA) means that research outputs are freely available online for people to read and potentially re-use. OA makes research available to many more people than a journal article sitting behind a paywall does. It benefits society and will also help your research be noticed and read widely.
• Read and Publish Deals (sometimes also known as Transformative Deals): UoC Library Services have signed a range of publisher deals available for UoC authors wishing to publish ‘Gold’ open access. Under these new agreements, the fees paid to publishers by the library cover not only access to published content (the 'Read' element), but APC costs as well (the 'Publish' element), thus providing new opportunities for researchers to publish open access
• RKE: Research and Knowledge Exchange, professional service supporting you at the University of Cumbria. Email: research.office@cumbria.ac.uk 
• Sherpa: Three services provided by JISC helping authors and institutions make informed and confident decisions in open access publication and compliance.
• UKRI: UK Research and Innovation - includes constituent councils (AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, MRC or STFC). https://www.ukri.org/publications/ukri-open-access-policy/ 
• University of Cumbria Open Access Policy: University of Cumbria recognizes the value of its research and is committed to sharing its knowledge and expertise as widely as possible in order to enhance its use and impact. Full policy available here.

Research Excellence Framework (REF) Open Access Policy

Open access is a requirement for REF eligibility, so if you have a journal article or conference paper accepted for publication you must deposit the accepted manuscript in Insight within three months of the date of acceptance.

A deposit guide is available here.

The Authors Accepted Manuscript (AAM) is the peer-reviewed version of an article/conference proceeding that has been accepted for publication. The content of the article is the same as the published version, but it is not the final published article with the publisher's typesetting and layout (e.g. page numbers).

It is the author’s responsibility to make sure a record is created in Insight as follows:

• Add record to Insight immediately upon acceptance
• Include the full acceptance date
• Include Author names (at least one from Cumbria)
• Include Article title
• Include Digial Object Identifier (DOI) (if known)
• Include Journal title
• Include your Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID id) (if known)
• Upload AAM within 3 months of acceptance

University of Cumbria Open Access Policy

The University of Cumbria's Open Access Policy is a comittment to sharing research outputs as widely as possible in order to enhance use, impact and reputation.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Policy

The new UKRI OA Policy launched in 2021 by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) applies to publications that acknowledge funding from UKRI and any of its constituent councils (AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, MRC or STFC). May influence the OA requirements of the next REF.

The new UKRI Open Access Policy applies to:

• Peer-reviewed research articles submitted for publication on or after 1 April 2022. For articles submitted prior to 1 April 2022, the old RCUK Open Access Policy still applies. The main changes for peer-reviewed journal articles:
  • Immediate open access is required i.e. no embargoes. This may be achieved via the green, diamond, or gold routes.
  • A Creative Commons CC-BY licence is required. A CC BY-ND may be permitted by the funder, on a case-by-case basis.
• Monographs, book chapters and edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024. ​​​​​​​Monographs are defined in the new UKRI policy as ‘a long-form publication which communicates an original contribution to academic scholarship on one topic or theme and is designed for a primarily academic audience… it may be written by one or more authors’. Page 4 of the Policy provides details of some of the possible exemptions, and page 5 of the Policy provides additional details about long-form publications which may contain third-party copyright content. Definitions of the long-form output types that are in-scope can be found on page 7 of the Policy.

Other Funder Policies

Follow the links below for details of key funders' open access requirements:

• Blood Cancer UK
• British Heart Foundation
• Cancer Research UK
• National Institute for Health Research and Department of Health and Social Care
• European Research Council and Horizon 2020
• Parkinson's UK
• Versus Arthritis
• Wellcome Trust

Further Support

Contact the library via insight@cumbria.ac.uk with any queries that you have. Contacting us at the point of submission will help to ensure that we can provide the most useful and timely advice but do get in touch at any point.

We have a range of publisher deals available for UoC authors wishing to publish open access. These deals are usually called Transformative Agreements or Read and Publish Agreements. Under these new agreements, the fees paid to publishers by the library cover not only access to published content (the 'Read' element), but APC costs as well (the 'Publish' element), thus providing new opportunities for researchers to publish open access. 

The following deals are available to all UoC corresponding authors to help reduce the costs of Gold open access. If you have any questions about any of the following deals, please contact insight@cumbria.ac.uk.

ELSEVIER Deal

• The University Library is signed up to a transformative journals agreement with Elsevier until 31 December 2025. 
• The University has access to the entire Elsevier ScienceDirect journals package as part of this agreement.
• The deal provides unlimited open access publishing to UK authors in Elsevier's hybrid journals including the Cell Press and Lancet titles. Search for hybrid Elsevier journals here (if the search yields a result, the journal in question is eligible for the deal).

 Submitting your article

1. Articles must have an acceptance date between 1st January 2022 and 31st December 2025.
2. Once your article has been accepted for publication, you will receive an email containing a link to the “post-acceptance author journey”.
3. Upon selecting your publishing options, your affiliation will be validated by the University, and you will be informed if the APC will be covered by the agreement.

​​​​​​​Please see Elsevier's open access author pages for full information.

SAGE Deal

• The University Library is signed up to a transformative journals agreement with SAGE until 31 December 2025.
• The University has access to the entire SAGE journals collection as part of this agreement.
• ​​​​​​​The agreement applies to research articles only; book reviews and commercial articles are not included. The following links list the journals where UoC authors are eligible to publish open access: ​​​​​​​Sage Premier Package; ​​​​​​​IMechE Journal Collection; ​​​​​​​Royal Society of Medicine Collection

 Submitting your article

1. Submit your article in the normal way - make sure it is in an eligible journal (see above). The submission will normally be via the SAGE submission site. 
2. Make sure you record University of Cumbria as your affiliated institution (a really important step). 
3. When your article has been accepted, you will receive an email from SAGE telling you your institution is part of an agreement where you may publish open access. 
4. You will then asked to login to the SAGE open access portal where you can, first, decide whether to publish open access, and, second, decide which type of license you want.
5. Your request will come through to the Library and the Research Office where it has to be approved. 

​​​​​​​Please see Sage's open access author pages for full information.

WILEY Deal

Authors affiliated with University of Cumbria may publish primary research and review articles in any of Wiley's and Hindawi's fully gold open access journals and Wiley’s hybrid (subscription-based) journals which offer open access with no further open access costs to the author (subject to the availability of available funds).

1. Visit www.wileyopenresearch.com/browsejournals and choose from one of Wiley’s fully open access journals.
2. During submission, select the payment option that says "The Corresponding Author's institution/funder has an agreement with Wiley" and follow the instructions to find and enter the University of Cumbria's account code.
3. Your request will come through to the Library and the Research Office where it has to be approved.
4. You will receive a confirmation email. Your accepted article is then published open access under a Creative Commons license on Wiley Online Library.

Please see Wiley's open access author pages for full information.

Cambridge University Press Deal

1. Choose a Gold or Hybrid CUP journal
2. Review the instructions for contributors under the ‘Information’ section
3. Click ‘Submit your article’ on your chosen journal’s homepage
4. On acceptance complete your author publishing agreement. If publishing in a hybrid
   journal, ensure you select 'Gold Open Access'
5. Your request will come through to the Library and the Research Office where it has to be approved.
6. Confirm the Creative Commons license under which the article should
   be published.

Please see CUP's open access author pages for full information.

Taylor and Francis Deal

• The University Library is signed up to a transformative journals agreement with Taylor and Francis until 31 Dec 2025.
• The University provides access to our existing Taylor and Francis collection as part of this agreement.
• UoC authors are permitted to published open access in Taylor and Francis Open Select (hybrid) journals only. There are also a small number of "premium" journals that are excluded from the deal.
• Please note that Taylor and Francis have set a maximum number of open access articles to be published for each year across all participating institutions. Please be aware that this limit might therefore be reached before the end of a year, at which point the open access publishing element of the agreement will be paused until the beginning of the following year. 

1. ​​​​​​​Choose which specific journal you’d like to submit your manuscript to. Follow our guide to find the most suitable publication for your research. You must select an  Open Select (hybrid) journal, which publishes both OA and subscription articles. See the full range of open access publishing options below. 
2. Read your chosen journal’s Instructions for Authors in full. This will outline everything you need to do to submit your article, including any particular formatting requirements. 
3. On Taylor & Francis Online look out for the green ‘Submit an article’ button to start the submission process. ​​​​​​​
4. On acceptance choose open access. 
5. Your request will come through to the Library and the Research Office where it has to be approved.
6. Select the Creative Commons license that’s right for you

Please see Taylor and Francis' open access author pages for full information.

Springer Nature Deal

• The Springer Nature Read and Publish deals runs until 31 December 2025 
• The University provides access to Nature Journal: https://my.cumbria.ac.uk/Student-Life/Learning/Resources/Eresources/Nature/ as part of the agreement
• UoC affiliated authors can publish with immediate open access in all of the 37 Nature journals at no cost to them or the university. These are the 37 Nature journals included in the deal: Nature Plants, Nature Astronomy, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Chemistry, Nature Climate Change, Nature Ecology & Evolution, Nature Energy, Nature Geoscience, Nature Human Behaviour, Nature Materials, Nature Microbiology, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Photonics, Nature Physics, Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Genetics, Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Immunology, Nature Medicine, Nature Methods, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Nature Sustainability, Nature Electronics, Nature Catalysis, Nature Metabolism, Nature Machine Intelligence, Nature Food, Nature Cancer, Nature Aging, Nature Computational Science, Nature Synthesis, Nature Cardiovascular Research, Nature Mental Health, Nature Water
• You can also find details of the agreements here: https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-research/institutional-agreements/oaforuk.

Insight holds the research output of members of the University of Cumbria. It is delivered and managed on behalf of the University by Library Services.

Depositing research outputs in Insight makes your research globally discoverable and ensures compliance with internal and external Open Access policies.

Please see the following guide: Getting Started: how to deposit an item in Insight

For further help and advice please email: insight@cumbria.ac.uk

Please email insight@cumbria.ac.uk for any questions about Open Access.

Research and Knowledge Exchange can provide information and support about internal research funding: research.office@cumbria.ac.uk

Also see our Open Access Resources page for direct access to open journals and other resources.