12. How can publishers help authors and institutions comply with Open Access policies: recommended standards

Scenario:

Gradually, research funders and institutions have been implementing Open Access policies that require research outputs such as peer-reviewed articles to become available on open access. At a global level, institutional and funders Open Access policies have increased from just a small number in 2004 to 770 in early 2016. The transition to Open Access also means that publishers are adapting to a new work environment and as a result they have also been adopting policies to address the terms in which they allow peer-reviewed articles to become openly available. This scenario shows how complex and fragmented the Open Access policy landscape is and how challenging it is for academic support staff and authors to comply with multiple policies in a consistent and systematic way.

Solution:

Jisc has been taking action on aligning Open Access policies expression by funders and institutions (Open Access Policies Schema) and also by publishers (Global Open Access Compliance Standards for Publishers).

Jisc has developed 13 recommended standards for publishers to adopt which will help authors and institutions globally to implement open access more effectively and reduce their cognitive and administrative burden. The standards include: adopting ORCID IDs; registering articles DOIs with CrossRef; populating co-authors’ affiliation; populating funding metadata; ensuring clarity on OA licensing terms; ensuring clarity on licensing/policy position for article versions; ensuring CC-BY licences for Gold OA; setting embargo periods aligned with those of the academic research community; detailing specific information in the author’s acceptance letter; supplying the accepted manuscript in the acceptance email; delivering an automated notification of acceptance; passing key dates in metadata; and allowing text/data mining. In addition to identifying standards for publishers to adopt, information is provided on the ways in which the academic research sector is asking for publishers’ support in reaching these Open Access standards.

The standards have been reviewed and endorsed by universities, research libraries, learned societies internationally and by members of the Research Libraries UK (RLUK) and the Association for Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA). The next steps are to promote further support and the adoption of the standards by publishers globally through a partnership with UKSG.

This poster presents the recommended standards and proposes to discuss ways for publishers to adopt the standards.