British Heart Foundation - Funding for APCs
Oxford’s BHF Open Access funding allocation (for October 2020 – March 2021) has been spent. We expect to have new funding from 1 April 2021. Until then, BHF recommend researchers select journals that allow the author to self-deposit the author’s manuscript in Europe PMC within 6 months of publication. Up-to-date information about funder requirements and block grants can be seen via our Open Access Oxford webpages: http://openaccess.ox.ac.uk/charity-funder-req/
Wellcome - Open Access Policy
Wellcome’s new Open Access Policy came into effect on 1 January 2021. An overview of the policy, plus practical action points, are available via Open Access Oxford: http://openaccess.ox.ac.uk/wellcome/
Springer Nature’s ‘Guided Open Access’ pilot
Springer Nature have introduced a ‘Guided Open Access’ pilot with three of their Nature-branded titles. Under the scheme, authors submit a manuscript to one of the journals and pay a non-refundable Editorial Assessment Charge. In return, they get a review document which includes an initial peer-review, and a recommendation of publication in one of six Springer Nature titles. The Guided OA mechanism avoids multiple rounds of review in different journals and it could potentially reduce the overall cost of publishing a paper but it could also result in increased costs, depending on where it gets accepted. It also runs the risk of paying a £1,890 Editorial Assessment Charge and the paper ultimately being rejected. Oxford does not support paying Editorial Assessment Charges from block grants. This does not prevent authors from publishing in Nature titles.
Including funding and institutional affiliation details
This is a reminder of the importance of listing funder information and grant numbers associated with an article when submitting for publication. This is a requirement by most funders and many of the publishers will automatically apply the funder mandated licence if this is done. Equally, with the University of Oxford partaking in a number of institutional publisher agreements, we would ask that authors use an institutional email address when communicating with publishers, as this is one of the indicators used to distinguish eligibility for publishing open access under these agreements.