Help & Support
Submitting to a compliant journal
Grant-holders should ordinarily submit articles to RCUK-compliant journals. It is advisable to check compliance before submitting a paper.
SHERPA/FACT and SHERPA/ROMEO contain information about publishers’ compliance with funders’ policies, including RCUK. It is advisable to check the journal’s webpages, too; SHERPA/ROMEO includes links to publisher sites. Please contact open-access-funding@ucl.ac.uk if you need advice about a particular journal.
Compliant journals may offer a Gold (paid) Open Access option, a Green option allowing deposit in a repository, or both. UCL encourages authors to comply with the RCUK policy by following the Green route if the publisher permits deposit in repositories within RCUK’s allowable embargo period.
The maximum embargo periods for UCL researchers choosing the Green Open Access route to compliance with the RCUK Policy are:
- 6 months (MRC-funded publications)
- 24 months (AHRC- and ESRC-funded publications)
- 12 months (all other RCUK-funded publications)
For detailed advice on embargo periods, contact open-access-funding@ucl.ac.uk
To deposit the final version of an RCUK-funded paper in UCL Discovery, please choose the RCUK Green Open Access option in UCL’s Open Access submission procedure.
Certain Research Councils have a requirement that research papers must be deposited in specific repositories. In particular:
- The MRC requires research papers to be deposited at the earliest opportunity, and certainly within six months, in Europe PubMed Central.
- The ESRC requires research articles to be deposited in the ESRC research catalogue at the earliest opportunity.
MRC- and ESRC-funded authors should endeavour to submit articles only to journals that comply with these additional requirements, and are encouraged to choose the Green option where possible.
UCL will meet publication charges for eligible papers if researchers deem the Gold route more suitable, or if the journal does not allow deposit in a repository within the relevant embargo period.
Article processing charges
UCL will meet publication charges where the following criteria are satisfied:
Publication criteria:
- Peer-reviewed research article or proceedings paper
- Publication arises wholly or partially from RCUK-funded research
Journal criteria:
- Journal complies with RCUK Policy on Open Access
- Journal does not allow RCUK-compliant ‘Green’ deposit, or researcher feels there is a compelling academic case for choosing ‘Gold’ Open Access
Author criteria:
- Corresponding author and/or grant holder is a current member of UCL, with either Staff or Research Postgraduate status
- Author and/or grant holder has deposited a copy of research paper with UCL Discovery
UCL has special arrangements with certain publishers for administering and paying article processing charges (APCs). These publisher schemes provide discounts on APCs. See the Payment section below for more information.
Selecting the Gold option
When an RCUK-funded article is accepted in a journal with a Gold (paid) Open Access option, the publisher will normally invite the corresponding author to select this publication route. To do so, you will usually need to complete the publisher’s paid Open Access request form.
Unless UCL has an Open Access membership arrangement with your publisher (see below), the publisher will ask for a billing address or credit card details, and other financial information. See the FAQs for help with this.
Payment
UCL Library Services will pay invoices directly, and handle all payment administration on your behalf.
UCL has special arrangements with certain publishers for administering and paying article processing charges (APCs). These publisher schemes provide discounts on APCs. In most cases, they involve payment from prepaid funds held by the publisher on UCL’s behalf, with no invoicing, making the payment process simpler and quicker. Please check UCL’s Open Access memberships schemes to see whether your publisher is one of those with which UCL has a membership, and follow the appropriate guidelines. In most cases you will not need to complete UCL’s Open Access submission procedure.
If payment is by invoice, when you receive the invoice, claim funds using UCL’s Open Access submission procedure. See the FAQs for more information about the payment process, and about checking that the article is made Open Access afterwards.
Where invoices need to be paid swiftly to avoid publication or Open Access delays, authors can pay on a departmental credit card and request reimbursement from UCL Library Services. See the Open Access FAQs for more information.
Last modified 25 April 2013
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