Publish your articles as free Gold open access with the Institute of Physics

To Aston researchers/academics:

Great news - Aston has a new agreement with the Institute of Physics (IoP) which enables researchers to publish their work on a Gold open access basis, with a CC BY licence, at no additional cost in the majority of IoP’s hybrid journals (costs are now covered by the subscription fee).

All corresponding authors at Aston can publish in eligible journals as Gold open access without barriers, without additional cost, and be certain that they comply to any open access requirement. Research articles and reviews accepted for publication after 1 Jan 2020 are eligible, and IoP will automatically identify qualifying articles and inform authors of their inclusion.

Included in the agreement are all subscription journals, owned by IoP Publishing, which offer a hybrid open access option. In addition, the agreement also includes selected journals which are published by IoP on behalf of their society partners. Click for more information about the scheme and how to take advantage of it.

This great new publishing model from IoP is very similar to the SpringerCompact agreement which has been very well used.

Please contact openaccess@aston.ac.uk with any questions; we look forward to hearing about you using both schemes!
libguides.aston.ac.uk/openaccess. 

Best wishes

Library Services - Research Services Team

Publish your Gold Open Access articles for free with SAGE

To Aston authors/researchers

SAGE are offering to publish hybrid OA articles for free within the SAGE Choice program for the remainder of 2019. This applies to research articles from Jisc member institutions [ie. Aston] which subscribe to SAGE Premier via the 2019 Jisc Collections agreement that enter production between now and the end of December. It applies to articles published in the SAGE Choice (Hybrid OA) program, details here: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/sage-choice

This must be requested by the author who should use the code “NESLi2019” on the contributor form’s discount code field when submitting the article. Please note, this does not apply to articles already in production or published and cannot be used for articles in SAGE (fully) Gold Open Access journals.

So , please do take advantage of this great offer - for any questions contact  openaccess@aston.ac.uk 

Welcome to International Open Access Week 2019

It’s International Open Access Week! This year, publishers, librarians, researchers, and institutions are discussing and organizing events around the theme: “Open for whom?” - see the article in this link for the view from PLOS - https://blogs.plos.org/plos/2019/10/welcome-to-open-access-week-2019/

Training sessions during "International Open Access Week"

It’s International Open Access Week, 21-25 October 2019, http://www.openaccessweek.org/ .  And to boost awareness for Aston authors/researchers the Research Services Team in Library Services are offering the following 45-minute training sessions in MB525b.

•             Wednesday 23 October, 2-2.45 : Online researcher profiles

Are you interested in learning how to increase your online presence, the discoverability of your publications and the role open access publishing plays in this? If so, come along to this presentation plus Q&A session to learn about the features and benefits of online researcher IDs and social networks (with Malcolm Horne).

•             Thursday 24 October, 2-2:45 : Setting up your Pure profile and adding content

Are you new to Pure or need a reminder on how everything works? Come along to this training session to find out how to make best use of Pure to highlight your teaching, research and academic achievements (with Leigh Stork).

•             Thursday 24 October, 3-4 : Pure drop-in surgery

Following the Pure training, we will be having a drop-in surgery for those who know how to use Pure but have questions or issues that need fixing (with Leigh Stork).

Please contact openaccess@aston.ac.uk  to book your place – we look forward to seeing you soon.

New RCUK/UKRI Gold OA funds

To Aston academics/researchers

We’ve recently heard that Aston’s been awarded a new & increased RCUK/UKRI block grant for 2019-20 for Gold Open Access publishing.  As before, this is for use to pay the Gold OA fees for high quality journal articles (3* plus, via local School assessment processes), & can be used in both hybrid titles and fully Gold titles.  The budget runs from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020 & we still have a some funds from 2018-19, so we are pleased to continue accepting applications as normal - openaccess@aston.ac.uk. More details of the process can be found at OA LibGuide - how to publish OA, right-hand box.

Research Services Team - Library Services

Upcoming Open Access, Open Data & Researcher Profiles training sessions

To Aston academics/researchers,

As part of ‘Love Data Week’, https://lovedataweek.org/, Leigh, Ammar & Malcolm in Library Services are running two events which may be of interest to you:

• Tuesday 12 February: Research Data and Open Access presentation, Q&A and hands‐on training,

MB525(b) 14:00 to 15:00

Do you have any questions about Research Data Management, Open Access and complying with funder requirements? Would you like some training on Aston Data Explorer and/or Pure? A short presentation will be followed by a Q&A session and hands‐on training.

• Thursday 14 February: Online Researcher Profiles and Promoting Your Data and Publications,

MB525(b) 14:00 to 15:00

Are you interested in learning how to increase your online presence and the discoverability of your data and publications? If so, come along to this presentation and Q&A session to learn about researcher IDs, academic social networks and data sharing tools.

To book on to an event please email openaccess@aston.ac.uk ‐ we look forward to seeing you soon.

Aston datasets are well-used globally

This graph shows the number of downloads of datasets from Aston Data Explorer (http://researchdata.aston.ac.uk/) since January 2017. Academics at Aston are creating important data which is being used globally.

Open Access, Open Data, Open Science training events

For Aston researchers/academics

As part of ‘International Open Access Week’, http://www.openaccessweek.org/, Library Services at Aston are running a series of events which may be of interest to you:

Monday 22 October: Open Access and Research Data drop-in surgery, MB525(b) 14:00 to 16:00

·         Do you have any questions about Open Access, Research Data Management, or REF? Would you like some hands-on training in Pure or Aston Data Explorer? Pop in and speak to Leigh, Malcolm and Ammar.

Tuesday 23 October: Open Science at Aston University, MB525(b) 14:00 to 15:30

·         The ‘Open Science’ agenda at Aston is an important feature of the University’s international research standing. It is a concept that incorporates open access publishing, open data and online researcher profiles, amongst other aspects. It also covers both STEM and AHSS areas. In this session you will learn about what Aston is doing to support the Open Science agenda, along with how you should be involved. Followed by a Q&A session.

Thursday 25 October: Highlighting your research while avoiding predatory publishers, MB525(b) 14:00 to 15:30

·         Questions about choosing the right journal to publish in? Not sure about those emails you keep getting from journals and conferences? Come to this presentation to learn more about identifying predatory publishers, followed by a Q&A session.

To book on to an event (Tues &/or Thurs), please email openaccess@aston.ac.uk - we look forward to seeing you soon!

Publish Gold Open Access for free!

Dear academics/researchers

Aston is part of the UK Springer Compact agreement; this scheme allows corresponding authors from Aston to publish both original research and review papers with immediate Open Access (OA) in over 2000 Springer subscription journals without any additional cost (beyond our annual subscription) or local School assessment. Once your paper is accepted, Springer will send you a link to their ‘MyPublication’ form where all you need to do is select your affiliation; a CC BY licence will then be applied to your paper making it fully Gold OA, and also easily REF/funder compliant. 

We look forward to you using the scheme!

Please contact openaccess@aston.ac.uk with any questions.

Kind regards

Research Services Team, Library Services.

Open Science at Aston - a new LibGuide

An exciting new LibGuide has been created by the Research Services Team which explains the concepts around Open Science - http://libguides.aston.ac.uk/openscience.

Open Science is the practice of researching in such a way that others can collaborate and contribute throughout the research process; and it encompasses all fields not just STEM.

The concept starts in the early stages of research by making research data freely available, continuing through the peer review and open access publication processes, to the further dissemination of knowledge through freely available software and open educational materials.

So, please take a look at the new guide which contains links to many other LibGuides where you can find details of the various processes and workflows involved.

The Research Services Team in the Library have a new member of staff

Dr Leigh Stork, Open Access & Research Repository Specialist,  joins us from Imperial College London with a wealth of experience in managing many aspects of Open Access. Leigh, along with Malcolm Horne and Ammar Wahid, will be pushing forward the ‘open science’ agenda at Aston. An important element of this is to increase the success rate of Green Open Access. Aston researchers, whether corresponding authors or co-authors, should:

·         Always deposit your Author Accepted Manuscript/Final Peer-Reviewed Draft of upcoming journal articles and conference papers into Pure on or very soon after acceptance (within three months max.)

·         Add your past and other publications to Pure

·         Upload datasets to Aston Data Explorer and add a dataset DOI to your paper (as applicable)

Doing this in all cases meets strict funder requirements (e.g. RCUK and EU) and helps us prepare for the selection process for REF 2021. Of course, additional benefits are increased impact and citation rates, appearance in altmetrics, and interlinking with your School webpages. ORCiD can help too in ensuring that all your publications and grants are linked to your profile, so we encourage you to add your ORCiD ID to Pure as well.

For further information, please see/contact:

• Open Access LibGuide; openaccess@aston.ac.uk
• PURE Guidance (Intranet)
• Research Data Management LibGuide; researchdata@aston.ac.uk
• Researcher Profiles LibGuide 

Aston authors/researchers publishing in Institute of Physics (IoP) journals

Aston is a member of IoP's 'Gold' open access (OA) offsetting deal. This offsets 90% of our OA payments (for articles in IoP subscription/hybrid journals) against the cost of our subscription fees for the following year.

IoP will ask if you would like Gold OA at acceptance. If your paper is eligible, Aston encourages you to go for Gold because of the size of the available discount, but please note conditions do apply to the use of central funds to pay for the APC - http://libguides.aston.ac.uk/openaccess.

Aston authors/researchers: sharpen your Open Access & Open Data know-how

Do you have questions about Open Access publishing or Open Data? Would you like to know more about the policies and how to achieve compliance, e.g. for HEFCE, RCUK and the EC? Do you need help to upload publications and/or datasets to our repositories (Pure / e-prints)?

Whether you are new to Aston or require a refresher session, specialists in Open Access (Malcolm Horne), Open Data (Ammar Wahid) and Pure (Paul Jones) will be running a training session in MB525b on the following date:

Thursday 15th February 2018, 2-3pm

After the session there will be time for optional hands-on help.  To book your place please contact openaccess@aston.ac.uk

Aston authors/researchers: sharpen your Open Access & Open Data know-how

Do you have questions about Open Access publishing or Open Data? Would you like to know more about the policies and how to achieve compliance, e.g. for HEFCE, RCUK and the EC? Do you need help to upload publications and/or datasets to our repositories?

Whether you are new to Aston or require a refresher session, specialists in Open Access (Malcolm Horne), Open Data (Ammar Wahid) and Pure (Paul Jones) will be running a training session in MB525b on the following date:

Tuesday 9^th May, 2-3pm

After the session there will be time for optional hands-on help.  To book your place please contact openaccess@aston.ac.uk

Aston authors/researchers: publish as Gold Open Access for free

Springer Compact is a 100%-discount deal which applies to Springer Open Choice journals effectively offering free Gold (ie. immediate) Open Access with a CC-BY licence; the deal applies to both original papers and review papers.

The corresponding author must be affiliated with Aston University, and the deal applies to papers at the point of acceptance for publication.

During the submission process authors should state that you are affiliated with Aston University; also use your university email address during the submission process for verification purposes.

For more information: www.springer.com/gp/open-access/springer-open-choice/springer-compact/for-uk-authors-intro 

International Open Access Week: 24-30 October 2016

Click on image to enlarge

Aston Authors - Sharpen your Open Access & Open Data Know-How

Do you have questions about Open Access publishing or Open Data? Would you like to know more about the policies and how to achieve compliance, e.g. for HEFCE, RCUK and the EC? Do you need help using Pure to upload publications and/or datasets?

Whether you are new to Aston or require a refresher session, specialists in Open Access (Malcolm Horne), Open Data (Ammar Wahid) and Pure (Paul Jones) will be running training sessions in MB525b on the following dates:

Tuesday 4th October 2-4pm

Thursday 13th October, 2-4pm

Wednesday 19th October, 10-12am

Tuesday 25th October 10 -12am

Thursday 27th October 2-4pm 

To book your place on one of the above please contact openaccess@aston.ac.uk

http://libguides.aston.ac.uk/openaccess

http://libguides.aston.ac.uk/ResearchData

Springer's Gold Open Access agreement for UK authors

We've some great news regarding Gold Open Access publishing.  Springer, together with JISC, have introduced a new publishing model which allows corresponding authors at Aston to publish in Springer Open Choice journal titles without the need to pay a Gold OA fee (APC), the costs now being covered as part of our subscription instead.  This means Aston researchers can make use of the benefits of free and immediate Gold Open Access (via selection of the CC BY licence) in over 1,600 Springer journal titles - benefitting yourselves, the institution and everyone world-wide.

The publishing process has been streamlined too as the scheme is based on a straightforward verification process and does not involve local case-by-case applications for APCs.  Lots more details are provided in this link: http://www.springer.com/gp/open-access/springer-open-choice/springer-compact/for-uk-authors-intro/731990.

We look forward to you using the scheme!

Please contact us at openaccess@aston.ac.uk with your questions.  For general guidance on OA publishing, both Gold and Green, please visit: libguides.aston.ac.uk/openaccess.

International Open Access Week: 19-25 October 2015

This week is International Open Access Week 2015.

Academic publishing is changing because of Open Access - share your research freely and openly online, and be eligible for the next REF.

For more information visit:
www.openaccessweek.org/
libguides.aston.ac.uk/openaccess
Please contact openaccess@aston.ac.uk with your enquiries.

Royal Society of Chemistry - Open Access update

• The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) have just publicized on their blog that the leading journal Chemical Science is now Gold Open Access, which means readers can access it free of charge. The RSC has also waived the author Open Access publishing fees for two years, making it even easier for researchers' work to reach the world.
• The other journal titles in the RSC's portfolio, pubs.rsc.org/en/journals, are fully Gold, meaning all articles have a fee paid to be made Open Access, or are 'hybrid' subscription journals, where individual articles can be made Gold Open Access.  
• We still have Gold vouchers left which operate in lieu of paying an 'article processing charge' (APC) fee, so please ask us at openaccess@aston.ac.uk if you're submitting an article for publication, or have had one just accepted, and are interested in going Gold; more details of the scheme are here: "Gold for Gold".