Open access 'Gold' budgets now available

Are you an Aston author?  If "yes", we are pleased to inform you that two budgets are now available to cover the publishing costs of 'Gold' open access (OA) journal articles.  OA publishing is all about sharing research freely and openly to all readers online, indeed many funding bodies, both public and private, now mandate for various levels of OA publishing, eg. HEFCE, RCUK, EC and the Wellcome Trust. 

'Gold' OA publishing involves the payment of an article processing charge (APC) - this includes the OA fee and/or page printing charges.  OA articles can be published in either wholly OA journals, eg. the extensive range of journal titles in Europe PubMed Central, or in hybrid journals (usually as an additional option), eg. many of the journals published by Elsevier and Wiley.  The library at Aston administers payments for these APCs - we can use the RCUK budget (£33,000 for 2014-15) relating to research funded (wholly or partly) by AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC or STFC, or the institutional budget (£35,000 for 2014-15) relating to other research projects. 

Because the APC budgets are limited consideration needs to be given to aspects such as high journal quality, potential REF submissions and the imposition of any lengthy embargoes by the publishers relating to the parallel 'Green' OA publishing process, ie. self-archiving in Aston's research repository AURA/Aston Research Explorer. (Please note: funding bodies also mandate in relation to this 'Green' aspect).  If you are submitting an article for publication, or have recently had an article accepted in a high quality journal, and would like to be considered for a 'Gold' APC payment please contact Malcolm Horne, Open Access and Research Repository Specialist (m.horne@aston.ac.uk, x4506), for advice and more information. For queries and more information relating to the aspect of 'Green' OA publishing please contact Erica Wine, Open Access and Research Repository Specialist (e.wine@aston.ac.uk, x4956), or Malcolm.  If you would like to know more about the general benefits of OA publishing please contact your Information Specialist in the library.