BHF Open Access Block Grant

BHF has allocated the University a block grant to support researchers to comply with their Open Access policy.

The British Heart Foundation open access policy applies to peer-reviewed primary research papers and non-commissioned review articles funded in whole or in part by BHF. These outputs must be made open access in PubMed Central within six months of publication.  BHF has allocated the University a block grant for 2023/24 of up to £100,825 to support researchers to comply with their Open Access policy.

How to make your article open access

  1. When you get an article accepted for publication please send a copy to your local administrator following the usual process. The publication will be deposited in Pure, and if applicable, the Library will deposit in Europe PubMed Central as well. It will be helpful to include details of the research funder and grant award number if it is not already listed in the acknowledgements section of the paper.
  2. If your chosen journal requires payment then the Open Access team then please submit a claim via the Journal article open access claim form and we will check details then get back to you with your open access options. We aim to reply within 48 hours, but if you have an urgent query let us know and we'll do our best to reply sooner.
  3. Before placing an order for paid open access with the publisher a PO is required. Please ensure that you have confirmation that funding is available, otherwise you will be liable for costs and will have to find an alternative source of funding.

Your Open Access options

Generally speaking there are three routes that are available to you to make your research open access. The default route is Green OA which you will automatically follow if you carry out step one above.  

 

If you publish in a subscription journal the University of Edinburgh’s preference is primarily to achieve Open Access through no-cost ‘green’ Open Access. This will ensure that funds are available for people to choose to publish in fully open access journals.