New RCUK policy on open access - Chemistry Central blog

"Following the publication of the Finch report in June last year, the UK government announced plans to make publically funded research freely available. That policy came into effect yesterday, meaning that all peer-reviewed published research articles and conference proceedings funded by RCUK must be open access. RCUK is supporting both the green and gold options for open access but with a strong preference for the gold route, where papers are made freely available immediately on publication. Where a journal offers a gold option, and funds to cover the article processing charge are available from the research funder, authors will be expected to publish their article via the gold route. Where a journal does not offer a gold option, RCUK will accept the green route, in which articles can be archived in a suitable repository 6–12 months after publication, depending on the discipline. RCUK is also requiring that any publications it funds are published under a CC-BY license, which allows full use and reuse rights to everyone, as long as the work is attributed to the original authors. All articles published by Chemistry Central are freely available under the CC-BY license, making them fully compliant with the RCUK policy. The UK is not alone in taking steps towards open access. Since 2008, the National Institutes of Health in America have mandated that the outputs from research it funds are made freely available, and earlier this year announced that they would enforce the policy by withholding grant money from those who fail to abide by it. Many other countries have also announced plans for open access over recent months, including Australia, Ireland and Denmark. RCUK acknowledges that the journey to full open access will take time, and they will allow some flexibility in the implementation of the policy over a transition period. Some researchers may still be left wondering how this will affect them, and BioMed Central has put together a short online video that should clarify any questions."