Queen Margaret University supports the freedom of authors to choose the most appropriate place in which to publish research outputs and acknowledges that QMU staff own the copyright in their scholarly works created in the course of their employment or studies, as per the QMU Intellectual Property Policy. It encourages researchers to ensure quality and impact when selecting where to publish and use dissemination channels which maximise knowledge exchange and impact in line with the university’s commitments to open research. The purpose of this policy is to set out the University's position with regards to staff members’ obligations to the open access publishing of their research.
Introduction
Open Access (OA), making peer-reviewed outputs of scholarly research freely available online, is a publishing model which supports the widest possible dissemination of research outputs. This increases the opportunities for QMU research to make societal and academic impact.
Open Access is mandated by most major research funders, including UKRI and Wellcome, and is a requirement for outputs being submitted to the REF (Research Excellence Framework). Funder policies increasingly require outputs to be made OA immediately, or with very short embargo periods, which require an updated approach.
Traditionally when publishing research outputs, authors have signed over their copyright to the publisher of their work, resulting in many published scholarly works now being under the partial or complete ownership of publishing companies. QMU therefore adopts the policy below.
Scope
The policy applies to all QMU staff with research stated as part of their employment contract.
The policy applies to all peer-reviewed research outputs including journal articles and conference papers in a publication with an ISSN, monographs, book chapters, scholarly editions and edited collections. Researchers are strongly encouraged to make working papers, preprints, reports and other research publications openly available, but they are outwith the scope of this policy.
This policy will be reviewed at regular intervals and updated when necessary.
1. All QMU staff must provide a copy of their Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) and the details of all in scope publications to eResearch at the point of acceptance and no later than the date of first online publication.
2. Upon acceptance for publication each staff member agrees to grant QMU a non‐exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide licence to make the accepted manuscript of their scholarly publications publicly available. A Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence will be applied to most research outputs, a more restrictive licence will be permissible for monographs, edited collections and book chapters and, in exceptional circumstances, for other publications.
3. Authors must ensure publications include an acknowledgement of the source of funding for the research on which publications are based, and a statement on how underlying research materials, such as data samples or models, can be accessed in line with QMU’s Research Data Management Policy.
4. The metadata will be made immediately available in QMU’s eResearch publications repository on deposit. The AAM of journal articles, conference papers and book chapters will be made available on the date of first online publication (or as soon as is practically possible thereafter). The AAM of monographs and edited collections will be made available no more than 24 months from the date of first online publication or as required by the research funder.
5. If an author publishes in a venue or with a publisher who supports immediate open access for the final version of record, publication details must be provided to eResearch at the point of acceptance, and notification sent at the point of publication, at which point the final published version will be made available in eResearch.
6. The university recognises that there may be situations beyond an author’s control where it is difficult to follow this policy exactly. Where a researcher wishes to opt out of the requirement for immediate open access upon publication, or the application of a CC BY licence, they should, as soon as reasonably practicable and prior to submission of the work for publication, contact eResearch@qmu.ac.uk to request to opt out of the relevant requirement(s) of this policy. Any such request will be reasonably considered in consultation with research centre leads but will not be granted where to do so would put the university (or the relevant researcher) in breach of a funder requirement.
Adoption
The university has contacted the publishers with which QMU researchers most commonly publish to inform them of this policy. eResearch@qmu.ac.uk can be emailed to check if a publisher has been included. To ensure that their publisher is aware, authors may additionally include the following text in the funding acknowledgement section of future submissions and any cover letter/note accompanying the submission:
For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.
It is recognised that some members of the University community who do not explicitly have research included in their contract – for example, professional service staff, teaching staff, and Postgraduate Research students – also publish research outputs, and are invited to refer to the policy in situations where this would be the only method to make their publications open access.
This policy applies to all authors, regardless of whether they are a corresponding or co-author. QMU researchers should inform co-authors of this policy so they are all aware of the intention to deposit a copy of the AM with a CC BY license.
This policy supersedes any downstream licence that a publisher may try to impose, and will remain valid if a publisher seeks to impose conflicting licence terms. Researchers will be fully supported by the University to achieve open access under the terms of this policy.
Responsibilities
1. Authors are responsible for providing publication details, funding information and the full-text of their publications to eResearch (eResearch@qmu.ac.uk) prior to publication; and for familiarising themselves with their funders’ open access policies. Authors are also responsible for making their co-authors aware of QMU’s Open Access Policy.
2. QMU Library Services will provide services and advice to enable authors to comply with the policy. Library Services will also inform publishers of the policy. Information and advice are available at: https://libguides.qmu.ac.uk/researchsupport/home .
3. Contact email for any questions about the policy: eResearch@qmu.ac.uk