Frequently asked questions

What is Open Access?

Open Access (OA) is the free unrestricted access to research outputs without restriction on use or reuse. It relates to the outputs that scholars normally do not expect to receive payment for: peer-reviewed articles, conference papers, some book chapters, datasets and so on. OA does not mean that authors lose the right to be properly acknowledged or that they lose control over the integrity of their work.

What is the University of Lancashire's policy regarding Open Access?

The University of Lancashire has an Open Access Policy (Staff only) which requires that research outputs created by staff and students while employed or studying at the University of Lancashire must be recorded on the University's Research Repository - Lancashire Online Knowledge. The policy also requires that a copy of the full-text of the output is uploaded with the bibliographic record and made available on an Open Access basis - subject to publisher self-archiving policies.

What if my output is practice based, or non-textual in nature?

In the case of music or films, copies of the full work should be uploaded but may be reserved. However, clips or extracts that represent the work should also be uploaded and rendered Open Access. Where the does not have a ready digital manifestation - an equivalent representation should be uploaded. This may be the catalogue of an exhibition, the associated flers and posters for performances. As much information as possible that helps the users to appreciate the nature and quality of the output should be included with any links to further information.

What are the Open Access requirements for the next REF?

Research England requires that the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) of all journal and peer-reviewed conference papers are deposited on an institutional repository within 3 months of the acceptance date and are OA within a limited embargo period. There are limited exceptions to this and for a period, deposit within 3 months of publication is accepted. Research England also encourages other output typos to also be made available on an Open Access basis. They are keen to promote the adoption of an Open Access culture in UK Higher Education.

How do I find out what my funders' Open Access policy is?

JISC provides services to quickly discover OA policies. SHERPA/JULIET will show you research funders' archiving mandates and guidelines. The UKRI and Wellcome as well as European Funders are also keen to promote the adoption of an Open Access culture.

How do I find out what my publishers' Open Access policy is?

JISC provides services to quickly discover OA policies. SHERPA/ROMEO will show you what publishers will allow you to self-archive and if there is an embargo or any other requirements. They also provide links to publishers policies and to pages offering full Open Access at a cost - Gold Open Access.

How do I find out if my publishers' Open Access policy is compatible with my funders' Open Access mandate?

The JISC Service SHERPA/Fact aggregates publisher and journal self archiving and Open Access policies. It will tell you if your publisher has policies that are compatable with your funder.

What is the difference between Gold and Green open Access?

Green OA is the practice of self-archiving a version of a work and making it available on an Open Access basis. It is free at the point of deposit. Repositories are maintained by research institutions or funders in order to provide a secure and managed archive for research publications, data and other digital files. They operate according to agreed standards and strict governance and are managed and maintained by professional staff. Lancashire Online Knowledge is the University of Lancashire's Research Repository.

Gold OA is provided by traditional publishers in return for a fee. They will make a work OA on payment of an Article Processing Charge (APC). The APC recompenses them for preparation work and for loss of subscription revenue. Some journal publishers offer an Open Access only platform. Here acceptance requires commitment to pay the Open Access fee or APC.

What if my publisher won’t allow me to make any version Open Access?

Most publishers comply with the Research England and funder mandates. However, if not Lancashire Online Knowledge staff will be able to advise you how to proceed. This may involve emailing your publisher or applying for Gold OA funding to pay an APC. Lancashire Online Knowledge staff will not compromise your publisher’s policies and you must still upload the AAM and reference.

How can I be sure I have met the requirements for the REF and my funder and not compromised my publisher's policies?

Deposit a copy of the AAM (or equivalent file) and the bibliographic reference on Lancashire Online Knowledge as soon as you can after acceptance and you will be compliant. By complying with the University Open Access policy you will meet the requirements of Research England and other funders without compromising your publisher's policies. Lancashire Online Knowledge has robust governance that ensures all entries are checked to be sure they do not infringe on any third-party copyright, including publishers' rights. The Lancashire Online Knowledge team or your Open Access Advocate will be in touch if we need more information or a different version of the output.

Why must I deposit all my publications on Lancashire Online Knowledge?

Lancashire Online Knowledge is not just for compliance. The records and works on Lancashire Online Knowledge are also used to provide information to the web pages and for UKRI and internal reporting. Lancashire Online Knowledge also performs an important preservation function. The repository is set up to ensure a copy of any of your works will be available for posterity - even if it cannot be made open Access.

What information do I need to include in the Lancashire Online Knowledge record of my research output?

The Deposit form on Lancashire Online Knowledge offers fields to record aspects appropriate to the type of output to be recorded. Some of these are required fields, others are optional. This will vary between output types partly because of the information available and partly because of funder and other requirements - e.g. a journal article must have the acceptance date included. The more information you can provide, the easier your output will be to discover by the scholars and researchers most interested in your work. The minimal information required to create a record is:

• Your name - in Lancashire Online Knowledgeenter your name in the creator field and the system will auto fill your email
• The output title.
• A date - this could be the date you received notification that your article was accepted; the date a book is published; or, the date a performance is given.
• A URL - this needs to be website where evidence of the output can be found and more information. It could be a publisher, or gallery page; a personal web page or a record on Researchgate or ArXiv.
• A copy of the full text (or equivalent). For a journal article, conference paper or book chapter this should be the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM). For non text outputs, include images or representations of an artefact; fliers and catalogues from exhibitions or performances; any other appropriate file that will help users appreciate the work (See The Quick Guides for more information).

We would always advice that a copy of your work should be deposited on Lancashire Online Knowledge alongside the bibliographic record. This is mainly to ensure a copy is preserved and available for future scholars, but it also helps participation with the REF and other research quality evaluation exercises.

What is the Author Accepted Manuscript, and what is the Date of Acceptance?

The AAM is the version of the work after all corrections from the peer-review have been made and the work is accepted for publication. The date of acceptance is the date you learn that your work will be published and no more changes are needed. You may receive an email or letter from your publisher, if so, send or email a copy to the Lancashire Online Knowledge team (contact details below). Alternatively, you can upload a digital copy to Lancashire Online Knowledge alongside the AAM when you deposit the record. The Lancashire Online Knowledge team will make sure it is not available to the public.

How does this apply to books and book chapters?

Many book or monograph publishers are following the example of journal publishers and they are adopting similar Open Access and Self Archiving policies (see the Open Access FAQs above). However, while there is an online tool to discover these policies for journal articles, for book publishers you will need to check their policies individually to see what their Open Access policy is. The Lancashire Online Knowledge team (clok@uclan.ac.uk) is happy to help.

Can I make a 'bulk' deposit of my previous works?

Yes. You can upload individual journal articles using the DOI (Digital Object identifier). For bulk deposits you can enter up to 10 DOIs at once. This will pull information that the publisher has registered about your article from the CrossRef database (CrossRef registers and validates your article's DOI). You will need to add local details like your email, your College/School and the date of acceptance and check the other details are correct. You will also need to upload the AAM or other full-text documents. Then you can Deposit the record onto Lancashire Online Knowledge.

You may also upload records from reference management software such as RefWorks, or bibliographic databases like SCOPUS. You need to export your files in a RIS or BibText Format and then import this into Lancashire Online Knowledge. Again this will pull the basic details into Lancashire Online Knowledge for you to check and add local details as well as the full-text.

If you have recently moved from another HEI you may have records on the research repository there. You can also export the details from there and then upload to Lancashire Online Knowledge as above.

Will my paper be immediately Open Access via Lancashire Online Knowledge?

No, once you have uploaded it Lancashire Online Knowledge staff will check it to be sure the upload is compliant with publisher policies. Work in press will be not be Open Access until publication. After publication, if the publisher requires an embargo period this will be applied. Only once embargo periods have expired will the work be available.

The bibliographic record, metadata, will be available as soon as the record has been checked by Lancashire Online Knowledge staff unless a specific request is made to reserve it until publication. Extra documents, like permission letters, notifications of acceptance, supplementary material etc will have their own availability settings. These will be either:

• completely hidden - there, but no-one can see they are there or open the files - except to Lancashire Online Knowledge Staff
• visible but not downloadable or readable
• visible to everyone but only downloadable/readable by university staff and students
• visible and available to download to everyone

Which of these options we apply is the decision of the Copyright holder - usually the author or the publisher. Any document that contains personal information like permission forms, correspondence, or acceptance notifications, is always hidden completely.

All documents that are visible are given a Creative Commons Licence

Do I need to deposit on Lancashire Online Knowledge as my work is uploaded to a subject repository or academic network like ResearchGate or ArXiv?

Funders like Research England require that works are recorded and archived on compliant repositories. That is repositories that have robust governance in line with national standards and processes to ensure third party copyright is respected and protected. Lancashire Online Knowledge is one such repository designed and managed as part of an international network of trusted academic repositories. Lancashire Online Knowledge processes are designed to respect third party copyright and work with funders and publishers to ensure a balance if interests. Any records and files that you upload are checked for accuracy and to be sure they comply with funder, institutional and publisher policies. In turn, publishers are aware of the integrity of UK HEI repositories. Lancashire Online Knowledge is a trusted partner in a network of HEI repositories. Commercial and social sites do not have these safeguards.

In addition the University policy requires that all research outputs derived from projects and work carried out at the University are recorded and deposited on the Lancashire Online Knowledge repository. Deposit enables:

• Outputs to be included in University, College and School research reporting exercises like the Annual Research Assessment (ARA)
• Outputs to be included in statutory external reporting for Research England, RCUK etc.
• Peace of mind regarding compliance with funder and Research England requirements
• Outputs to be included on University staff profile web pages and other integrated University systems
• Speedy and effective processing of payments and reporting for Gold Open Access

What is Gold Open Access?

Some publishers will make journal articles freely available on an Open Access basis at the point of publication and on the publishers online journal platform in return for an Article Processing Charge (APC). There are two models of Gold Open Access:

• Hybrid Open Access - where the journal is an existing title. Within the same issue some of the articles will be Open Access and some will be published and available under the traditional subscription model. Authors can ask that their article is made open access and the publisher will provide an invoice for the APC. This payment is designed to off-set any losses incurred by having the article outside the journal paywall.
• Fully Open Access Journals - where the title is only Open Access all the articles have a paid APC. These usually require payment prior to publication.

Is Gold Open Access only available for journal articles?

No. Some publishers are offering to make books Open Access for an equivalent charge.

Will the University pay the Article Processing Charge for me?

The University will be able to fund Article Processing Charges (APCs) if the work derives from UKRI funding and the proposed publication offers CC-BY access in return for the payment and otherwise complies with the UKRI Open Access mandate.

Your College may have funds to support Gold Open Access if your work was not funded by the UKRI you need to apply via internal College processes.

The University also benefits from publisher arrangements where APC costs are offset against subscription payments by the Library. Springer offer one of these deals and if you are publishing with one of their eligible titles you will be asked to opt in to Open Access for 'free'. Under this deal you will benefit from Gold Open Access but the neither you nor the University will be charged. Other publishers offer discounts and you will need to secure funding for the remainder of the APC.

How do I access funds to pay for Gold Open Access?

You need to secure funding before you ask for Gold Open Access and this needs to happen as soon after acceptance as possible. Often publishers give the option for Open Access when you respond to the acceptance for publication before you choose your options here you need to complete the University processes. Some publishers will not make a journal article Open Access in retrospect.

The first step is to complete the Lancashire Online Knowledge record for your article - you will need the Lancashire Online Knowledge ID of the publication record URL of the Lancashire Online Knowledge record to apply for funding. Then complete the request for Open Access funding, see Open Access Information (intranet access only).

Once this is done we will proceed with identfying a source of funding and complete the internal processes. As soon as possible your request for funding will be confirmed or rejected and you will be able to procede with your publisher.

My publisher wants to know who to send payment instructions to?

All correspondance relating to Gold Open Access should be directed to OpenAccess@uclan.ac.uk

My publisher has sent me an email/a link to confirm/arrange payment, what should I do?

Send any correspondence like this on to OpenAccess@uclan.ac.uk

My School/Institute has agreed to pay the APC, do I still need to go through the central process?

Yes. You need to complete the Lancashire Online Knowledge record for the output and complete the application form for funds because:

• UKRI and University policies require that any Gold Open Access payment includes access at CC-BY level. We need to be sure that this is included before we pass any invoices for payment
• Many publishers offer waivers or discounts for APC payments. We need to be sure that these are taken into account.
• We need to make sure that the details of the Open Access status is recorded on Lancashire Online Knowledge and that we download a copy of the version of Record to Lancashire Online Knowledge as soon as possible to comply with Research England and UKRI mandates.
• We need to be sure that the Purchase order includes details of the Lancashire Online Knowledge record so we can include the article in internal and external reports linked to KPIs and UKRI and Research England expectations - regardless of the sources of funding.
• We will check and chase after payment is made to be sure that the publishers deliver Open Access according to what has been paid for. This is necesary for some journal titles, less so for others.

Once you have completed the forms, received confirmation and informed your publisher, you can sit back and relax!

I am applying for Gold Open Access funding, do I still need to self archive my Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) on Lancashire Online Knowledge?

Yes, because:

• Research England requires that the AAM is uploaded within three months of acceptance/publication and while Gold OA is acceptable your application for funding may not be successful. Even if it is funded by an UKRI grant the UKRI open Access funding may have run out. To comply with UKRI policies you will need to have had the AAM available on and Open Access basis in line with the publisher policies.
• A copy of the AAM must be uploaded to Lancashire Online Knowledge to comply with University of Lancashire policies. This is to ensure a copy of the content is preserved as well as ensuring Open Access is available to the content.

UCLan is adopting ORCIDs to identify and support researchers as effectively as possible.

What is an ORCID?

• A unique digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher
• The link between all your professional activities, such as submitting funding bids and publishing papers

Why is the University of Lancashire adopting ORCIDs?

• For better recognition of your research achievements
• To comply with Research England, UKRI and other funder and publisher policies
• For more accurate and speedier administration

What do I need to do?

1. Go to https://orcid.org/register and enter your details - please use your university email address
2. In the Employment section, add the University of Lancashire
3. Make as much of your profile as possible public (so visitors know its you!)
4. Tell us about it - email your new ID to clok@uclan.ac.uk

ORCiD is telling me that my Institution may have created an ID for me, is this true?

No. The University of Lancashire has not created ORCID IDS for any of its staff as this is no longer recommended practice. However, other institutions may have done so in the past. There may be several ORCiD IDs showing that look like your name, these probably relate to other researchers with similar names to you. This is one of the key features of ORCID, once you have your ID we will be sure that the work we are looking at relates to you and not to another researcher.

• If you are sure you have not registered an ORCiD before, click the None of these are me button, and continue to registration.
• If you are not sure, try logging in with your UCLan email address. Ask to reset the password and if you have an ORCiD you will be sent a link and advice on logging in.
• If you think you had an ORCiD ID at a previous institution and you no longer have access to that email account, email ORCiD Support

What if I already have an ORCiD?

1. Go to https://orcid.org/signin and sign in
2. In the Employment section, add the University of Lancashire and add your university email address
3. Make as much of your profile as possible public (so visitors know its you!)
4. Tell us about it - email your new ID to clok@uclan.ac.uk

What will Lancashire Online Knowledge do with my ORCiD?

• The Lancashire Online Knowledge team will add your ORCiD id to the information on your Lancashire Online Knowledge profile
• When your name is added to a work your email and your ORCiD id will auto fill
• The Lancashire Online Knowledge team will check this against your ORCiD id on the publishers page to check we have the correct author
• Your ORCiD id will then show with the work record so visitors can click on it and look at your ORCiD profile
• In the future we will ask to you for permission to share bibliographic information between your Lancashire Online Knowledge and ORCiD profiles, thus reducing duplication of effort and improving the accuracy of the record.