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Research Support and Open Access

A

Article Processing Charge (APC)

A fee paid to a publisher to make an article Open Access via the Gold route. 

Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM)

The final author-created version of an accepted article, which includes any changes made after peer-review. Documents that have been typeset or copyedited by the publisher (such as proofs or the final published version) are not AAMs. 

B

Book Processing Charge (BPC)

A fee paid to a publisher to cover the costs of publishing books or book chapters open access. 

C

Corresponding author

The person who takes primary responsibility for communicating with a journal or publisher during the publication process. When working with multiple authors, the corresponding author usually takes the lead and acts on behalf of all authors working on the output.

Access to Transformative Agreements is usually based on whether the corresponding author’s institution is a signatory.

Creative Commons licence

A licence applied by a copyright owner to allow reuse of their work in any manner consistent with that licence.  There are six types of Creative Commons licence, listed below, from the most open licence, to the most restrictive:

  • Attribution (CC BY)
  • Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA)
  • Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND)
  • Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)
  • Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY NC-SA)
  • Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)

D

Data access statement

Used to inform readers about data associated with a piece of published research. The data access statement should describe where the data underpinning the research can be found, and under what conditions they can be accessed. 

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

DOAJ is a community-curated index of Open Access journals worldwide. Journals must comply with the DOAJ Principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing to be included. 

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

A numerical or alphanumeric string which is permanently attached to an online object, such as a journal article, book, file, website or other work. The DOI uniquely identifies the object and also provides a persistent link to its location. 

E

Embargo

A period of time, set by the owner or publisher of a work, which places a restriction on sharing it openly. There is often an embargo period for authors choosing to go down the self-archiving route.

G

Gold Open Access

When an Open Access copy of the publication is made available via the publisher’s website, often in return for an article processing charge being paid (Jisc, 2017).

Grant funding

Funds awarded to an individual or an institution to support research and research-related activities. 

Green Open Access

When an Open Access copy of the publication, or pre-print of a paper accepted for publication, is archived in an institutional or subject specific repository (Jisc, 2017).

H

Hybrid journals

A journal in which some of the papers are Open Access and others are only accessible via payment or subscription.

I

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

A unique number which is assigned to a book to identify it. 

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

An eight-digit code which is used to identify newspapers, journals and periodicals. 

J

Jisc

A data and technology agency focussed on tertiary education, research and innovation. They provide shared services, infrastructure and advice on managing library resources, research publication lifecycle and research outputs.

L

Long-form publication

A book length publication such as a scholarly monograph, edited collection, trade book, scholarly edition, exhibition catalogue, illustrated catalogue, textbook, or work of fiction / creative writing. Long-form publications have traditionally been excluded from most funders’ Open Access policies, but some longer works are now being brought into scope. For example, the current UKRI policy covers monographs, book chapters and edited collections, although other long forms are not required to be made openly available.

M

Manuscript

The document submitted to a publisher pre-publication.

Metadata

Data that describes and gives information about other data. For each record created in Newman’s institutional repository metadata is inputted which conforms to a certain standard allowing data to be harvested by aggregators of research outputs.

Monographs

A book, treatise, or other written work on a single topic.

O

Open Access journal

A journal which is free for anybody with an internet connection to read in its entirety.

ORCID iD

An ORCID iD is a persistent digital identifier which can be used to distinguish individual researchers.

Outputs

The product of research as defined by the REF policy, for example a journal article or a book. The definition is broad enough to encompass all forms of research therefore allowing for assessment on a fair and equal basis.

P

Panels

The REF2021 exercise broke down the different subject disciplines into 4 main panels and 34 Units of Assessment (UOA).

The submissions were assessed by an expert sub-panel for each UOA, working under the guidance of the four main panels. The REF2021 open access policy set maximum embargo periods for each panel.

Plan S

Plan S is an initiative which aims to accelerate the transition to Open Access publishing. Funders which are signatories to Plan S require research resulting from public grants to be published in Open Access journals or platforms.

Pre-print

Any version of a manuscript which precedes formal peer review or other quality assurance as part of the publication process.

Publication metrics

Provide a quantitative method to analyse published research. They can inform researchers on the potential impact of your research and help to make responsible choices about where to publish.

Publication venue

Anywhere that published research will be made available in either print or digital format. This includes established forms such as books, journals and conference proceedings and newer online outlets, for example pre-print servers, pre-publication platforms, funder platforms and scholar-led initiatives, such as the Open Library of Humanities.

R

Repository

An online archive for collecting, preserving and distributing digital copies of research output for a particular institution. Birmingham Newman University has an institutional repository which stores research outputs created by researchers at Birmingham Newman.

Research Excellence Framework (REF)

The current method by which the four UK higher education funding bodies, Research England, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland (DfE), assess the quality and impact of the research they support in academic institutions across the UK (REF, 2022a). The latest iteration of this exercise is REF2021.

Research outputs are assessed by expert panels in 34 subject-based units of assessment (UOAs), overseen by four main panels covering Medicine, health and life sciences (Panel A); Physical sciences, engineering and mathematics (Panel B); Social sciences (Panel C) and Arts and humanities (Panel D) (REF, 2022b).

The REF Open Access policy forms part of the main Guidance on submissions.

The Future Research Assessment Programme (FRAP) is currently looking at possible alternatives to the REF as a means of assessing the UK research environment. This is currently being referenced as REF2029, although there are expected to be significant differences from the current framework particularly around who can submit work and the eligibility of outputs.

Rights Retention Statement (RRS)

A statement included on a manuscript at the point it is submitted to a publisher. This tells the publisher that you have already applied a licence to the version you have submitted. This means the research can be shared more widely and allows researchers to comply with funder policies via the Green route if no appropriate Gold route is available.

S

Self-archiving

See Green Open Access.

Submission

The point at which you submit your work to the publisher.

T

Transformative agreements

Also referred to as transitional agreements they are contracts negotiated between institutions and publishers, designed to support the transition to Open Access publishing. They achieve this by converting traditional subscription spend into publication spend.

Transformative journal

A subscription or hybrid journal which is actively committed to transitioning to a fully Open Access journal (cOAlition S, 2020).

V

Version of Record (VoR)

A fixed version of a journal article that has been made available by a publisher. It is also referred to as the final published version. It is the fully copyedited, typeset and formatted copy of a manuscript.

Last reviewed: 28 May 2024

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