Librarians set sights on open access REF submissions

"The UK’s major research librarians are to intensify their pressure on publishers, funding agencies and policymakers to ensure that publicly-funded research is available in open access repositories, according to their strategic plan published earlier this week. Research Libraries UK, a network of libraries of the Russell Group universities and national libraries, has already warned journal publishers Wiley and Elsevier that they will not renew subscriptions at current prices. One of the aims of its three-year plan, published on 23 August, is “shaping ethical and effective publishing”. This includes extending “our well established commitment to support open access to research outputs”. Executive Director David Prosser said in a telephone interview with Research Fortnight Today that the group is in discussion with the Higher Education Funding Council for England to see if the rules for the Research Excellence Framework could include a requirement that papers submitted to the REF be made available in open access repositories. RLUK, he said, is also talking to research councils to see if their contracts with research grantees can be amended to ensure that all outputs are publicly available in addition to being available in a commercial journal...."