Open access - beyond compliance

HEFCE’s OA policy has forced the biggest change upon UK HEI’s in terms of open access, with the requirement for all journal articles and conference proceedings to be made open access within set timeframes in order to be eligible for submission in the next REF. Action has had to be taken by all UK HEI’s to ensure that their next submission to the REF can include all the articles that the HEI will submit. But how do we ensure that all the research being made open access is actually able to be found? To be easily accessed? Has open access become merely about being a set of requirements? If HEFCE took away the requirement for open access in the next REF would our academics still see value in open access? Is a 2 year embargo period really acceptable for our research outputs? Are smaller HEIs being penalised by not having the funds to pay for immediate “gold” open access? This presentation looks to highlight the benefits of open access whilst showing ways in which our academics can gain maximum visibility of their research. How Library/Repository staff can assist in this process and ways in which smaller HEIs are able to benefit from open access without an increased access to funds. It will look at academics changing attitudes towards open access, embargo periods, and whether they perceive there to be value in making their research open access. Do academics consider the cost of article processing charges in their decision making process? It will provide some practical and easy to apply changes to workflows that will increase the visibility of research outputs, and bring open access back to being about being “best practice” rather than compliance.