University of Oxford Open Access Publications Policy

"The University has a new Open Access policy, approved on 1st March 2018 by the Research & Innovation Committee and the Open Access Project Group. It reiterates the University’s commitment to ensuring the widest possible access to its world-class research, and its preference for ‘green route’ open access. It also confirms the University’s continued support for the academic freedom of its authors to publish in the journal of their choice. The University of Oxford Open Access Publications Policy is available on the Open Access at Oxford page and sets out responsibilities for the University and for researchers, summarised below.

Researchers’ responsibilities: Act on Acceptance Plus

The new policy builds on the existing ‘Act on Acceptance’ message by asking all authors to deposit, on acceptance, the accepted manuscript of journal articles and conference papers into the university repository ORA (via Symplectic Elements). Additionally, it asks for bibliographic details to be recorded for all other publications, and full text uploaded if possible. Research students are required to deposit a digital copy of their research thesis into ORA. Researchers are also asked to obtain an Oxford-linked ORCID.

The University’s responsibilities: systems and support

The University undertakes to provide systems, support, information and training to facilitate open access, including the institutional repository ORA, a permanent and secure online archive of research materials produced by University members. It will undertake advocacy and collaboration with publishers and other bodies to support the aims of the policy. The University will provide a service that assists researchers in complying with funder requirements including HEFCE policy for REF 2021. It will continue to administer block grants from funders (RCUK, Wellcome Trust/COAF) to pay publisher OA fees (Article Processing Charges, APCs) when required.

The new policy replaces the 2013 Statement on Open Access. University members with queries should email the OA Enquiry team at openaccess@bodleian.ox.ac.uk."