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FAQs on open access publishing

Open and unrestricted access to published research - Further guidance for researchers regarding the policy, advantages of the policy and how to comply.

Last updated: January 2013

 

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1. What is an open-access publication?

1.1 An open access publication is one that meets the following two conditions:

(a) The author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual (for the lifetime of the applicable copyright) right of access to the work, and a licence to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make printed copies for their personal use.

 

(b) A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format, are deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organisation that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving.

 

This definition of open-access publication used in this FAQ is based on the definition arrived at by delegates who attended a meeting on open-access publishing convened by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in July 2003.

 

1.2 The MRC considers that there are two routes to achieving unrestricted access to the published research literature. One is to publish the original research paper in an open-access publication (as in the definition in paragraph 1.1 above); another approach is to publish in any journal that allows deposition of a copy of the final manuscript into a freely accessible digital repository. For further details, please consult FAQ “How do I comply with this policy?”.

 

1.3 Research Councils UK have developed a policy on open-access publishing and archiving, and the MRC has developed its policy in that context. It also closely follows the policy of the Wellcome Trust.

 

1.4 The MRC decided in July 2006 that all MRC grant holders, holders of fellowship and staff must use Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC), as the MRC's required digital repository. More details of this policy are set out our FAQs.

 

1.5 Authors should note that deposition of their research paper into Europe PMC will not prevent them from also depositing a copy in their own institutional or another subject-based repository should they choose to do so or be required to do so by their employing institution.

 

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2. What is PubMed Central (PMC)?

PMC is an archive of life science journal literature operated by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a division of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM). Access to PMC is free and unrestricted via the Internet.

 

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3. What is Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC)?

3.1 In 2007, the MRC- in association with the Wellcome Trust and a number of other UK biomedical funders - established a UK version of PMC: UKPMC. The initial five year contract to run UK PMC was renewed in 2011 and awarded to a partnership between the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), The University of Manchester and the British Library.

The European Research Council (ERC) announced on 13 July 2012 that it would participate in the UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) open access repository service, joining 18 existing UK and European funders. As a result of this participation, the existing funders have agreed that the service will be rebranded as 'Europe PubMed Central' (Europe PMC) by 1 November 2012.

 

3.2 The aim of this initiative is to create a stable, permanent and free-to-access digital archive of the full text, peer-reviewed research publications (and datasets) that arise from research funded by the MRC, the Wellcome Trust and other members of the Europe PMC Funders Group.

 

3.3 Europe PMC comprises of three key systems. One, a mirror of the data held in PMC, subject to permission from those publishers that participate in PMC. Two, an author manuscript submission and tracking system, - at Europe PubMed Central plus (Europe PMC plus), with supporting document conversion services. Three, a system to provide authenticated login services to the submission system. Further details can be found on the Europe PMC pages.

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4. What are the benefits of Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC)

4.1 Europe PMC enhances the visibility of research findings. Europe PMC content is freely available and can be accessed by all researchers, and not just those based at an institution that subscribes to a particular journal.

 

Evidence is emerging which suggests that free Internet access widens the circle of those who read and make use of scientists' investigations, thus maximising the return on research investment and making the research process more efficient.

 

4.2 Europe PMC provides innovative tools and services for the research community. Through a development programme, managed by the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) in consultation with the funding organisations and the academic community, Europe PMC has been enhanced:

  • To provide the functionality – using text and data mining technologies – to integrate research articles with a range of other online sources, such as gene, protein and chemical compound databases;
  • To enable discovery of, and provide access to, valuable and hard to find additional content such as clinical guidelines, theses and research reports;
  • To integrate a range of bibliographic databases – including Medline, Patents, and Agricola – into a single, seamless discovery tool.

 

4.3 Europe PMC will assist in the assessment of the impact of research. Europe PMC currently holds the details of over 12,000 Principal Investigators and 23,000 grants, funded by the Europe PMC Funders. Using the Europe PMC Grant Reporting Service, researchers, administrative staff and the Europe PMC funding organisations can determine research outcomes by linking research grants to publications.

 

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5. What is the current MRC policy in support of open and unrestricted access to the research literature?

The MRC has a position statement on this issue, which includes the specific obligations of institutions, grant holders and all others supported by grants. Specifically, the MRC:

  • Expects authors of research papers to maximise the opportunities to make their results freely available and, where possible, to ensure that copyright is retained by their employer or institution.
  • Will pay any necessary charges levied by publishers who offer Open Access options. For grants starting after the 1 April 2013, funding will be provided as part of the RCUK block grant. All grants where the start date is before 1/4/13 should include anticipated APC charges (as Directly Incurred) for the tenure of the award – see Applicant Handbook. MRC Institutes and Units are already fully funded, and are expected to meet such costs out of their existing budgets. (See also FAQ “How will open-access costs be met”).
  • Requires electronic copies of any research papers that have been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, and are supported in whole or in part by MRC funding, to be made freely available from PubMed Central (PMC) and other PMC International (PMCI) repositories such as Europe PubMed Central. All deposited papers must be made freely accessible from the PMC and other PMCI repositories as soon as possible and in any event within six months of the journal publisher’s official date of final publication.

 

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6. When was this policy implemented?

The MRC grant terms and conditions were amended with effect from 1 October 2006. The policy is mandatory for all grant holders and fellows whose proposals were submitted after 1 October 2006, and for all MRC establishments for papers submitted for publication after 1 June 2007.

 

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7. As a result of this policy, what are the benefits to authors?

Authors will benefit in two ways:

 

1. Firstly, their research papers will be given a much wider form of dissemination and will be able to be read without restriction by anyone with internet access. And, though the evidence is incomplete, what is available is starting to show that open-access articles are cited more often than non-open access articles from the same journal and year. See, for example, the editorials published in BMJ and Nature and a paper in PloS Biology.

2. Secondly, as readers they will increasingly be able to search the full text of all the research published in their area, not just the research available to them via the subscriptions their institution offers.

 

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8. What kinds of paper are covered by this policy?

8.1 The policy applies to peer-reviewed, original (primary) research publications that have been supported, in whole or in part, by the MRC.

 

8.2 The policy does not apply to book chapters, editorials, reviews, conference proceedings or PhD Thesis.

 

The MRC’s contribution must be acknowledged in all publications, quoting the relevant grant or fellowship reference number or for MRC Staff the Programme Unique Identifier.

 

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9. How do I comply with this policy?

9.1 As an author there are two ways in which you can comply with the requirement that your MRC-supported research is made freely accessible via Europe PubMed Cental (Europe PMC).

 

9.2 Firstly, you can submit your manuscript to a journal that offers an open-access option. Journals which provide this facility will take responsibility for depositing the final, published version of your paper in PMC and making it freely available on the day of publication. Papers deposited in this way will be mirrored to Europe PMC.

 

9.3 Publishers that provide this option include all the open-access publishers (such as BioMed Central and the Public Library of Science) as well as an increasing number of traditional publishers which have introduced a hybrid Open-access model in which individual articles can be made open access. Under this model the author pays a fee to the publisher to make their article accessible for free online, immediately it is published in the journal. A copy of the article will be deposited in PMC (and mirrored to Europe PMC), again with immediate free access.

 

Examples of publishers which have introduced a hybrid OA model include OUP, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer, CUP, Elsevier, BMJPG, PNAS, the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Company of Biologists.

 

9.4 If you submit your manuscript to a publisher that does not offer an open-access option, you can still comply with the policy by depositing a copy of the final, peer reviewed manuscript in Europe PMC. In cases where the author manuscript is deposited, these papers must be made freely available as soon as possible and in any event not later than six months after the journal publisher’s official date of final publication. An author manuscript submission system is available on the Europe PMC website for MRC researchers to self-archive papers.

 

Examples of publishers which support this model include the American Medical Association, and Nature Publishing Group now also offer a free manuscript deposition service for authors.

 

9.5 In both approaches, authors are expected to include in the manuscript the unique identifier(s) for the funding. In the case of MRC funding, for grants this will be the grant reference number (e.g. G0123456); and for MRC staff the Programme Unique Identifier (e.g. U123456789). This is to enable funders to link the published outputs of research to the funding provided.

 

9.6 Flow-diagram, showing the two approaches described above.

 

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10. How will open-access costs be met?

10.1 The MRC will pay any necessary charges levied by publishers who offer Open Access options. For grants starting after the 1 April 2013, funding will be provided as part of the RCUK block grant. All grants where the start date is before 1/4/13 should include anticipated APC charges (as Directly Incurred) for the tenure of the award – see Applicant Handbook.

10.2 MRC institutes and units are already fully funded, and are expected to meet such costs out of their existing budgets.

 

10.3 Other Europe PubMed Central funders may have slightly different funding policies. For further information, check their site via Europe PubMed Central.

 

10.4 The RIN and UUK report (March 2009), “Paying for open-access publication charges”, offers further practical guidance.

 

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11. Will the Medical Research Council pay the open-access fee for a research paper which has been supported in part by the MRC and in part by another funding agency?

11.1 Where a paper has arisen from research funded by more than one member of the, Europe PubMed Central Funders’ Group, the costs of making that paper Open Access should be split proportionally. This is for the authors (or their institutions) to agree.

 

11.2 Our expectation is that universities will in due course put into place a mechanism whereby the proportional costs can be charged to the appropriate funder.

 

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12. What are my responsibilities as a co-author on a paper?

12.1 All research papers that have been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, and are supported in whole or in part by a MRC-funded grant, must be made available from Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC) as soon as possible, and in any event within six months of publication.

 

12.2 The author funded by the MRC is responsible for ensuring that the paper is made available in Europe PMC – either by checking that this will be done by the paper’s main author (if this is a different person) or by submitting the paper themselves.

 

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13. How can I find out whether my journal has an MRC-compliant policy with regard to depositing my manuscript in Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC)?

13.1 The SHERPA/RoMEO database, developed by the University of Nottingham, is expected soon to provide information – at the journal title level – as to whether or not a journal has a publication policy that is compliant with the MRC’s policy.

 

13.2 If the journal to which you wish to submit your manuscript is not listed in the database, the MRC strongly encourages you to speak directly to the journal’s editorial staff to determine their policy. If the editorial staff reaffirm that the journal policy is not compatible with that of the MRC, authors should follow the guidance below (further guidance can be found in FAQ “What should I do if the journal does not have an OA option, nor does it allow me to self-archive my manuscript with Europe PMC?”).

 

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14. If a publisher offers a funded-access option, as a MRC-funded author am I obligated to select this option?

14.1 It depends on the policy of the publisher.

 

14.2 If the publisher offers a funded-access option, the MRC would always encourage authors to take advantage of this. If however, the author wishes not to take advantage of a funded-access option, but instead to deposit a version of the manuscript manually, the author may choose between this route and the funded-access option as long as the publisher allows self-archiving of a suitable version of the manuscript within the scope of the MRC’s grant or fellowship’s terms and conditions.

 

14.3 If a publisher only offers a funded access option - which provides free access to the published version in Europe PubMed Central, at the time of publication - then to comply with the MRC’s grant or fellowship’s terms and conditions the author must select this option. By way of example, when publishing with Elsevier, MRC-funded authors must select the funded-access option in order to comply with the MRC’s grant or fellowship’s terms and conditions.

 

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15. What should I do if the journal does not have an open-access option, or does not allow me to self-archive my manuscript with Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC)?

15.1 Authors must ensure, in advance of making any agreement with or commitment to a publisher at any stage, that the agreement or commitment does not conflict with the author's obligations under the MRC’s policy (as set out for grant-holders in the grant or fellowship terms and conditions). Specifically, authors should inform the journal that they have an existing obligation to make their papers available from Europe PMC, and investigate whether the publisher's policy is in conflict with this obligation.

 

15.2 The MRC's grant terms and conditions are mandatory and binding on institutions, grant holders, and all others supported by a grant. An author's obligations to the MRC (whether as a grant-holder or member of staff) will therefore, in almost all cases, pre-date any agreement with a journal.

 

15.3 Authors are unlikely to be able to comply with the MRC’s policy if, without reaching a specific agreement with the journal about deposition of a copy of the final paper in Europe PMC, they (or their institution) transfer the copyright (or undertake to do so in the future) to a journal.

 

15.4 If such a conflict exists, authors or their institutions have a variety of options: guidance on (a) and (b) is available from the “The JISC/SURF ‘Partnering On Copyright’ Programme”.

 

(a) Grant a licence of their copyright to a journal instead of assigning. Such a licence would have to deal with the rights granted to the journal in such a way as to allow the journal to publish but still allow the author to make the article available via PMC/Europe PMC. In this way, the author’s institution should be able to retain ownership of their copyright and still allow publication in a journal. This could be achieved, for example, through using one of the Creative Commons licences (creativecommons.org).

 

(b) Agree to a journal's normal arrangements only on the condition that it be specifically agreed that it can be made available from Europe PMC. Copyright agreements can take many forms, but the following is an example of the sort of wording that could be included in an agreement with a journal that would still allow an author to comply with the MRC’s grant terms and conditions:

“Notwithstanding any of the other provisions of this agreement, the journal acknowledges that the researcher will be entitled to deposit an electronic copy of the final, peer-reviewed manuscript into Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC), and for this manuscript to be mirrored to all PMC International sites. Manuscripts deposited with Europe PMC may be made freely available to the public, via the internet, within six months of the official date of final publication in the journal”.

 

(c) Reconsider where to publish. This is anticipated to be an exceptional circumstance. It is also worth noting that the UK Research Councils and a number of national and non-government funding agencies around the world have adopted very similar positions, which make it likely that that the arrangements suggested here will become part of normal research practice within a few years.

 

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16. In cases where I am self-archiving the paper in Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC), when should I do this, which version should I deposit and how do I do it?

16.1 An electronic version of the author's final manuscript resulting from research supported, in whole or in part, by MRC funding must be submitted upon acceptance for publication.

 

16.2 The version of the paper that should be archived is the final version that is accepted for journal publication, and includes all modifications from the publishing peer-review process. When self-archiving, the publisher’s PDF version should NOT be deposited. Suitable file format information can be found on the Europe PubMed Central plus (Europe PMC plus) site.

 

16.3 All author depositions should be made via the Europe PMC plus website, via the “Submit Manuscripts” page. A quick reference guide is available on the Europe PMC plus page.

 

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17. Who can self-archive a manuscript in Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC)?

17.1 Manuscript files may be submitted to Europe PMC – via Europe PMC plus by the author or anyone given access to the author's files (administrative personnel, graduate students, librarians, etc.).

 

17.2 In cases where a paper has been written by someone other than the principal investigator (PI) (typically named as the grant holder), submission to Europe PMC plus should be made using a user-created login (a login account can be created at the Europe PMC plus site). In cases where the PI is the author, submissions should be made using the Europe PMC plus login-account, automatically supplied to the PI. (If you have not received, or have mislaid this login, please contact the Europe PMC helpdesk on by email at: helpdesk(at)europepmc.org.

 

17.3 Irrespective of who submits the paper, approval of the PDF receipt and web version of the manuscript requires review and authorisation. This authorisation is usually given by the PI – but the PI can also nominate another person to do this on his/her behalf.

 

For example, in cases where the research has been undertaken by staff other than the PI (e.g. research assistants, etc.), it might be more practical to grant the approving rights to the actual author of the paper – not the named PI.

 

In any case, submitted papers are not processed until approval is given. Once approved, the citation in PubMed – and the full text in PMC/Europe PMC – will cite the authors as listed in the manuscript, irrespective of whether or not this includes the PI as a named author.

 

17.4 Manuscript submission user guides are available on the Europe PMC plus website.

 

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18. Will I need to make my papers published before October 2006 accessible through Europe PubMed Central?

No. The policy only applies to research papers resulting from grants where the proposal was submitted after 1 October 2006, or in the case of MRC establishments to research papers submitted for publication after 1 June 2007. Whilst the MRC would be delighted to see previously published papers deposited, we are in no position to insist on this due to the existence of copyright agreements between researcher and publisher which pre-date our grant terms and conditions. We have specifically advised our researchers to ensure that no such agreements are breached.

 

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19. How can I be sure that an author-submitted manuscript that is a made available in Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC) was published in a peer-reviewed journal?

19.1 While any researcher can make a deposition of a research paper Europe PubMed Central plus they have to assign a principal investigator (PI) and a grant number(s) to that paper. Only a grant holder or fellow known to MRC (or another member of the Europe PMC Funders Group), or their nominees, can authorise the paper to enter the PMC/Europe PMC process (XML mark-up etc.).

 

19.2 Once the marked-up article has been authorised by the PI, this will be loaded into PMC and then mirrored to Europe PMC. This paper will automatically become publicly available after the delay period (if any) has elapsed, and following a final check of the PubMed database to ensure that the submission does relate to a published paper in a peer-reviewed journal.

 

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20. Does the MRC allow for exceptions?

If a researcher wishes to publish a paper in a journal that is unwilling to agree either to author/institution-ownership of copyright or to deposition in Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC) within six months, the MRC may, in very exceptional cases, grant permission for authors to submit the paper for publication in such a journal. Such permission is likely to be granted only if a strong case can be made that the paper needs to be published in a particular journal and if there is evidence that the author has raised the issue with the publisher. Requests should be made in writing before the paper is formally submitted for the first time to Victoria Cassely (openaccess@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk [see 21, below]), including details of: 

  • Your current employing institution (or MRC unit)
  • Title and abstract of the paper
  • MRC grant reference number (if applicable)
  • The name of the journal you would like to submit the paper to, and the reasons for choosing that journal
  • The titles of at least two alternative journals that meet the MRC’s Open Access policy
  • Evidence, specific to this paper, that the publisher will not agree either to author/institution-ownership of copyright, or to deposition in Europe PMC within six months.

 

The MRC aims to reply within ten working days. The MRC will keep this position under regular review.

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21. What form of words should I use to acknowledge the MRC in journal articles?

Following discussions between the Research Information Network, Research Councils, other funders and journal publishers, a standard format was agreed for acknowledging funders in journal articles. This is to enable improved tracking of the publications generated by funded research projects.

For articles published in journals, or deposited in institutional or subject-based repositories, the acknowledgement of funding should take the form of a sentence as in the following example, with the funding agency written out in full, followed by the grant or Unit Programme number in square brackets:

This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number xxxx/Unit Programme number Uxxxxx]. Multiple grant numbers should be separated by comma and space.

Where the research was supported by more than one agency, the different agencies should be separated by a semi-colon, with "and" before the final funder. For example: This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Natural Environment Research Council [grant number zzzz]; and the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number aaaa].

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22. Can I link an article to my funding after it has been published?

Yes. Europe PubMed Central plus (Europe PMC plus) provides manuscript submission and grant reporting services for authors who are funded by Europe PMC funding organisations. By using Europe PMC plus you will also be able to link a published paper with your grant.

 

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23. Who can I contact for more information and/or help?

Any queries about this policy and its implementation should be directed to openaccess@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk

 

For links to other Europe PMC Funders, policies and FAQs, see the Funders pages on the Europe PMC site.

 

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