Research Support and Open Access

You should deposit your research as soon as it has been accepted for publication.

If your work is in scope of the REF open access policy, this ensures that you will be compliant with the requirement to deposit your research within 3 months from the date of acceptance.

For UKRI funded work, this ensures that it meets the requirement for a copy to be made available open access in the repository at the time of final publication.

Before you deposit your research, go through the following checklist to ensure you have everything you need: 

• You may be required to log in with your Birmingham Newman credentials - if you rely on a device for MFA, make sure you have it to hand
• If you are making use of 3rd party copyright material in your research, it is your responsibility to ensure you are permitted to use this material in an institutional repository. Contact openaccess@newman.ac.uk if you have any questions about this.
• Check you have the correct version of your research ready to upload. See our FAQ's for more information on identifying the correct version.  

You can deposit your research by completing our online form. Once you have told us a bit about yourself, you can select the type of output you want to submit (Journal article, Conference proceeding, Monograph/Chapter or Other).

Next steps

• The repository team will check your submission. Wherever possible, they will source missing information about the submission from publicly available information. They will also check compliance with Open Access requirements for REF2029 and any funder policies. 
• Provided we have all the necessary information, a repository record will be created, which will include: 
  • Metadata about the output. For example: title, author(s), place of publication, date of publication 
  • Abstract (where available) 
  • A link to the final published version 
  • If your work can be made available immediately, there will be a link to download the full text version of your research. If your work is under embargo, the link will not be active until the expiry of the embargo period. 
• We will send you confirmation that your work has been uploaded 

How can I identify the correct version to submit to the repository?

• Check your publisher's open access/self-archiving policy for details. In most cases, if your research is being published in a subscription or hybrid journal, publishers will only allow the repository team to upload the authors accepted version (AAM).  
• If you have paid an Article Processing Charge (APC) or made use of one of our Transformative Agreements to make your work open access, then the repository team should be able to use the final published version for the repository record. However if your work has not yet been published at the point that you submit your work to the repository, please upload the accepted version of your work so that we can attach something to the record when we create it. Once the final published version is available, we will update the repository record with this version of your work.

How quickly will my work be uploaded to the repository?

This depends on what you are submitting. Priority will be given to outputs which need to comply with funder or REF2029 Open Access policies. We aim to upload these within 2 weeks of submission. If you fail to supply all the necessary information, or send us a version of your work that we cannot upload, then this will delay the deposit. Creative practice work may take longer.

If my work is co-authored by another Birmingham Newman University researcher, do we all need to submit a copy of our research to the repository in order to comply with the REF2029 policy?

No. We only need to have one copy of a research output in the repository in order to comply with the REF2029 Open Access policy. We recommend that you liaise with your co-authors to decide who is responsible for submitting the request.

If my research is under embargo, will that stop people from being able to view it?

Yes. When a work is under embargo there will be no option to download the full text version of your research, however it is possible for people to request access using the 'Request a copy' link. In this case, the repository team will be notified and will contact the author to ask how they wish to proceed.

I am a new member of staff, am I required to deposit work carried out at my previous institution(s)?

No. Birmingham Newman University's Open Access policy does not require you to notify the repository team of any work carried out at your previous institution.