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Open Access

Guide developed for RMP Elements and OAR Figshare

Does the University's OA Procedure apply to me?

The procedure applies to all researchers at the University of Tasmania.

In the OA Procedure researchers are defined as: Any employee, Visiting Fellow or Scholar, Adjunct, Clinical, Associate or discretionary Title Holder or student of the University undertaking research, where the definition of research is consistent with the Higher Education Research Data Collection specifications.

How can I comply with the OA Procedure?

The types of research outputs mandated for deposit are outlined in the OA Procedure 2.2 Mandatory Deposit.  Any outputs accepted for publication or presented after the implementation date of October 2018 are required.

More specifically:

  • Outputs published as Open Access - If you have published in an OA journal or other OA publication. Claim the  OA published version that you claim and deposit in Elements will automatically be assessed for Open Access in the University's Open Access Repository. See Manage your Research Outputs for further information.
  • Outputs not published as Open Access - You need to deposit the author accepted manuscript  (final author version of record) and the final published version in Elements. See Manage your Research Outputs for further information.

My research was funded by the ARC/NHMRC.  How can I comply with their OA policies?

ARC publication outputs

By complying with the University's OA Policy, you also will fulfill the requirements of the ARC OA policy

NHMRC publication outputs

NHMRC released a new OA policy in September 2022.  The NHMRC OA policy 2022  mandates all peer-reviewed publication outputs, resulting from grants awarded on or after 20 September 2022, be made immediately open access with no embargo under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.   See https://utas.libguides.com/OpenAccess/NHMRC for compliance advice.

Which version of my research output should I deposit?

There are three ways to comply with the UTAS OA Procedure, depending on your publishing route or output type

  1. Traditional subscription journal, book etc- keep the author accepted manuscript sent to you by the publisher following peer review and corrections and before you signed the publisher agreement. Deposit the AAM in Elements
  2.  OA journal or OA book - you can just link to the outputs digital object identifier in Elements.
  3. Non-traditional research output - you need to deposit a digital representation of your NTRO in Elements.

What is the Author Accepted Manuscript?

The author accepted manuscript (AAM) is the full-text version provided to you by the publisher following peer-review and corrections and prior to you signing the publisher's copyright or author agreement. The author retains copyright to this version as you have not yet signed the copyright or author agreement which transfers copyright of the published version to the publisher. 

Also known as:

  • Author's Accepted version
  • Post-print 
  • Final Author version
What does the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) or Final Author Version look like?

I don't have the final version of the author accepted manuscript (AAM). What should I do?

The corresponding author is most likely to have the final author version of your accepted manuscript. Alternatively, your co-authors may have a copy you can upload. Contact your Publications Officer if you're unsuccessful in obtaining a copy.

Will I breach copyright when I deposit my research output for OA?

After you upload the author accepted manuscript version to Elements, Library Services OA assessment team undertake an assessment for each deposited output digital file.  Your output will only be made openly accessible after checking publisher copyright or copyright owner licensing requirements.

Different versions of your paper will have different copyright restrictions, check a journal's OA policies using Sherpa Romeo

See UTAS research and copyright (intranet) for more information about managing others intellectual property and copyright in your research. 

My paper has multiple authors.  Who is required to deposit it?

If you are the lead author on a publication, you are responsible for deposit in Elements.  

If you are not the lead author but are the only one at the University of Tasmania, you need to deposit the author accepted manuscript and published version in Elements for our institutional Open Access Repository.

I create non-traditional research outputs (NTROs).  How can I comply with the OA policy?

You are required to deposit a digital representation of your non-traditional research output (NTRO) in Elements for discovery and, if copyright allows, access in the Open Access Repository. See NTRO deposit in Elements guide for specific advice.

What are the current ERA accepted file types and file size limits?

ERA 2018 supported file types
  • Adobe {PDF (i.e. .pdf)
  • Image (i.e. .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .bmp, .png, .tif, etc)
  • Microsoft Word (i.e. .doc,.docx)
  • Microsoft PowerPoint (i.e. .ppt)
  • text (i.e .txt)
  • standard video/ audio formats (i.e .mp3, .mp4, .avi)
What are the ERA file size limits
  • preferred individual file size is 2MB
  • >30MB will not be accepted.

See ERA-SEER 2018 Technical Specifications for further information. 

Should I make my research data OA?

The UTAS Open Access Policy does not apply to research data however, increasingly, publishers and funders (including ARC and NHMRC) support discovery and access (if appropriate)  to research data and some publishers may require OA data to accompany your accepted manuscript.   

Visit the Research Data Management subject guide and find out more about storing, archiving or publishing your data in the Research Data Portal and managing your research data for discovery, access and potentially re-use.  

What is the institutional Open Access Repository (OAR)?

Find out more about the new Open Access Repository powered by figshare 

I can see that my document is in the repository, however it is labelled 'in review'. What does 'in review' mean?

There are manual assessment steps all outputs undergo prior to publishing in the repository.  

  1. Research Outputs Officers (ROOs) assess the item for reporting requirements for the annual collection  
  2. The library then assesses the output’s copyright for open access or embargo
  3. Item is then published to the Open Access Repository 

Publisher copyright & self-archiving the AAM in OAR - what you need to know

Most traditional publishers permit authors to deposit the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in their Institution's OA repository. 

Depending on the publisher,  there may be an embargo period, Creative Commons licence and/or a set statement, which must be applied prior to the Author Accepted Manuscript being made accessible in the University Open Access Repository (OAR). 

You can find out more about publisher's Institutional Repository self archiving (Green Open Access) policies by searching the Sherpa/RoMEO website.

 

Publisher/ Author Agreement - copyright transfer

As part of the publishing process you will be asked to sign a Publisher (or Author) Agreement.

The Publisher (or Author) Agreement specifies the rights that you transfer to the publisher, often including a statement about whether or not you can deposit a version of your paper in an institutional repository.  

Most publishers will time the signing of the Agreement after sending authors the author accepted manuscript which has been peer reviewed and corrected.

Your publication strategy

Consider publishers' policies on sharing publications via an OA repository when developing your publication strategy and before signing the Publisher Agreement.  

Author Addendum

To retain rights enabling you to deposit your publication in an OA repository, you may wish to consider submitting an Author Addendum. Here are some examples:

More about publishers and open access

See: https://oaaustralasia.org/resources/#faqs

 

My publications are in another institution's OA repository.  What do I need to do?

If you have a co-author at another institution, your research output may have been deposited there already.  

Nonetheless, deposit is mandatory for authors from the University of Tasmania - the research output must be submitted to our institutional Open Access Repository (via deposit in Elements).  If an Open Access version of the paper is available through another institutional repository, or subject repository, we will link to the existing OA source, instead of making the fulltext open access again.

My publications are accessible via ResearchGate.  Do I need to do anything else?

Yes.  You are still required to deposit your research outputs in Elements for discovery the Open Access Repository.

There are significant differences between sites like ResearchGate and an institutional Open Access repository, in their design and function.  ResearchGate and Academia.edu are comparable to Facebook, primarily being social networking sites but for researchers.  

Open Access repositories are designed for and committed to openness, interoperability and data re-use.  

See an explanation from University of California

It can be expensive to publish in OA Journals.  Do I have to do this?

No, the OA Policy does not require publishing in OA journals or books.

The OA Policy supports "Green OA", meaning authors may continue to publish in journals of choice.  Just keep the author accepted manuscript (AAM) version (version sent to you after peer review and corrections but before you sign the publisher's copyright or author agreement) . Deposit the AAM in Elements for the  Open Access Repository.

The University Library has a number of Read & Publish Agreements with traditional (subscription) journal publishers. The Library pays the Author Publishing Cost (APC), not the author, so that the article is OA upon publication.  

I have received a Google Scholar request to upload an OA version of my research output to Google Drive.

What should I do?

Upload the Author Accepted Manuscript of your research output to Elements as mandated in the University Open Access procedure. 

The original publisher's copyright and author archiving policy will dictate when the author accepted version can be made accessible in the Open Access Repository.  Once the version is made accessible in the OAR it will be indexed by Google Scholar.