Open Access checklist for UoE authors

Checklist for all UoE authors to follow to help them make their research outputs open access.

In order for the University and its researchers to comply with funder requirements, and to enable the University to disseminate its research and scholarship as widely as possible, whilst enabling its staff to publish their work in a journal of their choice the University of Edinburgh has adopted a new Research Publications and Copyright Policy

We present a checklist for all UoE authors to follow to help them make their research outputs open access. Funded authors will have extra steps to follow to ensure they comply with their funders’ policies. The policy was introduced on 1 January 2022 and all UoE authors are expected to follow its requirements from 1 April 2022.

If you are unsure about ANY of these steps you can ask your local support team or contact the central Scholarly Communications Team (openaccess@ed.ac.uk). 

Before submission

Add the following Rights Retention Statement (RRS) in the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript and any cover letter/note accompanying the submission:

“For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.”

Extra steps for funded research outputs (e.g. UKRI/Wellcome/ERC): 

Upon Acceptance

After your article is accepted for publication the publisher usually sends you a link to complete their online forms. At this point select your Open Access route and initiate the process with the journal publisher, usually via;

  • Route 1: Gold OA

    • If you have had confirmation that funding is available in the Before Submission step, follow the instructions issued by the Scholarly Communications Team and order an invoice remembering to select a CC BY licence when prompted.
  • Route 2: Green OA
    • If you have included the RRS text in your submission then the article can be made immediately OA on publication. If the publisher wants to remove the statement then  please contact the Scholarly Communications Team who will assist (see extra step 10 below).
  • Route 3: Transformative Agreement
    • Indicate your University of Edinburgh affiliation during submission. This should help ensure your article will automatically be included in the Read & Publish deal. Each publisher has their own system which should be simple to follow, however if you have any questions the Scholarly Communications team will able to guide you through the process. Please do not order an invoice as this will have to be cancelled.

After Publication

Extra steps for funded research outputs (e.g. UKRI/Wellcome): 

If you are unsure about ANY of these steps you can ask your local support team or contact the central Scholarly Communications Team (openaccess@ed.ac.uk).