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Durham University Open Access Policy

As a leading research institution, Durham recognizes the value of its world-class research. It is committed to sharing its knowledge and expertise as widely as possible, to enhance its use and impact within the academic and research community and more widely within society. These principles are reinforced by the Finch Report recommendations on Open Access which have been adopted by both RCUK and HEFCE. In 2012 Senate approved the University's Open Access Policy but, following RCUK's adoption of the Finch Report recommendations and the new RCUK and Welcome Trust Open Access requirements for the dissemination of publicly funded research, the 2012 Open Access Policy was updated and approved by Senate in March 2013.

View the full-text of the revised Durham University Open Access Policy.

What is DRO?

  • a Web-accessible database of records describing Durham University's research outputs
    • Journal articles, book chapters, conference and working papers

  • a full-text copy of an output is attached to its DRO record, if the copyright agreement with the publisher permits
    • Usually the post-print - the author's final, peer-reviewed manuscript - rather than the published version
    • Post-prints are valuable to researchers at institutions without subscription-access to the published journals

  • Content can be used free of charge for non-commercial, personal study
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Benefits of DRO deposit

To promote your research ; to enhance its:

  • visibility
    • Repository content has greater prominence in Google and other search engines
  • availability
    • Free access to full-text for non-commercial, personal study
  • impact
    • Growing evidence that repository deposit increases citation
      • Monitor citations using the Web of Science - guidance notes are available
    • Full-text downloaded over 50 times on average
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How to deposit

Deposit in DRO is a 2-step process:

  1. Create a bibliographic record in the Staff profile system describing your research output
  2. Mark the record for transfer to DRO and upload the full-text:
    • your own final version as accepted for publication
    • incorporating revisions arising from peer review
    • but prior to editorial input from the publisher
    • NOT the published version

Library staff verify the record's bibliographic data and check the publisher's repository policy before depositing the attached file. If the publisher of the output permits the final published version to be deposited, staff will try first to source the full-text using Library resources. If this is not possible, the author will be asked if they can supply or provide hard-copy for Library staff to digitise

If the full-text is not available when the record is created, transfer the record and return and attach the full-text file to the Staff profile record as soon as possible.

View the DRO Deposit Guide [4 page PDF]

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Using the Staff profile system

The Staff profile system is part of the CIS Web Content Management System (CMS). Please use the Staff profile system to create records describing your research outputs. This data has multiple uses:

  • Display on your Durham University web page
  • Submission for research assessment exercises (e.g. REF)
  • Inclusion in DRO

See Computing and Information Services (CIS) Guide 181: Editing your web staff profile for further details about using the Staff profile system.

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Depositors' Survey results

The survey was conducted between 21 December 2010 and 21 January 2011 and had 3 main aims:
  1. to discover if depositors had evidence that depositing their work in DRO had benefited them
  2. if they had concerns about making their research findings open-access via DRO
  3. any suggestions to improve the service to better support their research

Survey results and discussion of the findings are available in this brief report.

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Policies

  • Durham University Open Access Statement

    • The Statement demonstrates this University's commitment to share the findings of its world-class research as widely as possible. Now, where copyright agreements permit, all research outputs published in peer-reviewed journals since 1 January 2008 must be made freely available in DRO.

  • Use policy

    • Provides details of who can deposit items in DRO. In brief, only Durham University-based researchers. The policy also describes how DRO content should be used by readers. In brief, only for non-commercial, personal study.

  • Take-down policy

    • Describes the procedure to follow if you own the copyright for an item in DRO, but have not given permission for its deposit. In brief, send us an email with details of the item.

  • UK Research Councils' and Wellcome Trust's access to research output policies

    • Key points relating to open access in the 7 Research Councils' and Wellcome Trust's policies. Also links to further details on each organisation's website.

  • JULIET

    • Web service providing details of various research funders' open access policies. Service hosted by the Centre for Research Communications at the University of Nottingham.

  • RoMEO

    • Web service providing details of publishers' repository policies. Service hosted by the Centre for Research Communications at the University of Nottingham.

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Research Councils UK (RCUK) policy on access to research outputs

The policy states that all Research Council funded research published from 1st April 2013 must:

  1. Be published in compliant journals
  2. Include details of the funding received
  3. Include a statement on how the underlying data can be accessed

Compliant journals

  • Provide immediate and unrestricted access to the publisher's final version of the paper on the journal's website (i.e. the Version of Record), and allow immediate deposit of the Version of Record in other repositories without restriction on re-use. This may involve payment of an "Article Processing Charge" (APC) to the publisher. The CC-BY license should be used in this case.

  • Where a publisher does not offer the option above, the journal must allow deposit of the Accepted Manuscript that includes all changes resulting from peer review (but not necessarily incorporating the publisher's formatting) in other repositories, without restrictions on non-commercial re-use and within a defined period. In this option no "Article Processing Charge" will be payable to the publisher. Research Councils will accept a delay of no more than six months between on-line publication and a research paper becoming open access, except in the case of research papers arising from research funded by the AHRC and the ESRC where the maximum embargo period is 12 months.

Additionally, for the payment of APCs, RCUK will only provide funding to support these through block grants to UK Higher Institutions. From April 1st 2013, research grant applications will no longer include provision for open access publication or any other publication charges

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FAQ

I do not want an unformatted version of my article in circulation if the published version is available.
  • The post-print - the author's final, peer-reviewed manuscript - is usually the only version of full-text which publishers permit to be deposited in repositories. It may lack the polish of the published version, but it is very valuable to researchers working at institutions without subscription access to the published journal. Without the repository copy, these researchers would have no access at all to your work.
Won't I lose valuable citations if researchers cite the repository copy?
  • The convention is to cite the published version and add the URL of the repository copy, and date when accessed. For example:

    • Crang, M (2002). 'Between places : producing hubs, flows, and networks', Environment and planning A, 34 (4), pp. 569-574. Available at: http://dro.dur.ac.uk/5151/ ; Accessed 7 September 2010.

I must publish in high impact journals to further my career.
  • You can publish in prestigious journals and deposit in DRO. Many publishers, such as Elsevier and Springer, permit authors to deposit their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts in institutional repositories. However, they usually do not permit the final published version to be used. Library staff will check publishers' copyright agreements for you.
Some of my work is confidential.
  • DRO is available to help authors publicise research outputs which they want widely disseminated and read. The 'DRO Request' checkbox in records in the Staff profile system, enables authors to flag those records which they want included in DRO.
I have already deposited my research papers in the ESRC repository. Can you copy them to DRO for me?
  • Yes. But if you have not already done so, please create bibliographic records in the Staff profile system for each of your papers. Select the 'DRO Request' checkbox and record in the 'Notes' field, that the papers are available in the ESRC or any other repository. Library staff will locate and deposit the full-text in DRO for you.
How do I know if my papers in DRO are being used?
  • You can view item-level statistics showing how many times the full-text has been downloaded, and in which country. Select Usage statistics for this item at the bottom of each DRO record.
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