Open access

This workflow outlines the options to consider at each stage of your research project, to comply with open access (OA) policies and fulfill your funder mandates.

Step 1. Choose a journal

Choose:

• the highest quality outlet suitable for your article
• ensure it has the right audience for your content.

The Think section in Strategic scholarly publishing explains the process to follow when choosing a journal.

When you submit your publication to the journal, remember to:

1. Use your ORCID iD along with your name on your publication
   • grant Crossref rights to push your publications to your ORCID profile
   • This helps ensure your publication metadata, once published, can be harvested by UQ eSpace and made available - a requirement of both ARC and NHMRC policies
2. Ensure UQ is listed as your affiliation as per UQ's Authorship Procedure:
   • include funder acknowledgement as required (e.g. the ARC requires that any published research output must include acknowledgement of ARC funding and the ARC Project ID)
   • The Submit section in Strategic scholarly publishing has an example of the correct affiliation format to use and other authorship best practice advice.

Step 2. Check if you need to pay article processing charges (APCs)

Use the Journal Search (UQ login required) tool in UQ eSpace to check your journal title's open access status.

Fully open access journal

If a journal is not part of read and publish agreements, you will need to pay an APC and source your own funds for it. Be prepared to exercise a rights retention strategy or select a different journal of suitable quality. Contact the Librarian Team for advice.

Not a fully open access journal

Some journals offer the option to publish your article open access by paying an APC.

UQ has several Read and Publish Agreements with publishers/journals where you may have access to a pre-paid or discounted APC if you are the corresponding author.

If the journal you are publishing in is not covered by one of UQ's Read and Publish Agreements, you can still meet open access mandates (if your research is funded by the ARC or NHMRC) and NOT pay an APC by depositing the author accepted manuscript (post peer review version) of your article in UQ eSpace.

If your paper acknowledges funding from agencies other than the ARC and NHMRC, such as Horizon 20/20 or the Wellcome Trust, they may have more restrictive OA compliance requirements.

Note:

• Both the ARC and NHMRC policies require a CC-BY license (Learn more about Creative Commons (CC) in the next section).
• There are special requirements for research resulting in a patent - refer to 4.3 of the NHMRC Open Access policy.

Step 3. What to do once your paper is published

To comply with OA mandates:

1. Ensure the publication metadata is in UQ eSpace and is included in your profile
2. If your paper was not published in a fully OA journal, deposit the author accepted manuscript in UQ eSpace. This is the version post peer-review but without the journal or publisher layout
   • UQ eSpace staff will consider publisher conditions and make this version open access when possible, taking into account embargo periods
   • Even if your article is not able to be open within a 12 month embargo period, you can still satisfy the ARC policy. Check other Funders’ requirements to ensure OA compliance. Note: you may need to supply a statement in cases where your papers are not able to be open within the 12 month period, clearly articulating that the journal was the most suitable quality outlet for your publication
   • Your article will be set to automatically change to openly available at the end of the embargo period.
   • Use your rights retention strategy, communicating your intention clearly to the publisher when submitting your manuscript and upload your author accepted manuscript to UQ eSpace as soon as the paper is published to satisfy some funder mandates, e.g. NHMRC.

Open access policies and mandates (section 2), has more information about compliance.

Other options to consider in your workflow

Share your data

Consult funder and journal or publisher policies around data sharing.

Submit the research data (UQ login required) underlying your publication to UQ eSpace in order to:

• share it (either openly, or via a mediated approach)
• make it available for peer reviewers.

Both ARC and NHMRC policies refer to and support the FAIR principles, that is, that research data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable.

Cite your dataset in your publication

Cite your dataset to preserve the link between your article and the dataset. If you choose to publish your research data in UQ eSpace, a DOI will be minted for your dataset.

Promote your publications

The Promote section in Strategic scholarly publishing outlines methods to use to showcase your work and academic profile.