Green Open Access

You are encouraged by the University  to self-archive your work in the University of Birmingham Research Archive (UBIRA).

This is the 'green' route to open access and is free for authors.

To go 'green':

1. Check your publishers’ policy regarding 'green' open access self-archiving, by checking Sherpa Romeo.
   • If funded, see if your funders open access policy is compatible with your publishers self-archiving policy using Sherpa FACT.
2. Deposit the accepted version of your publication (PDF format), into UBIRA using Pure.
   • The accepted version is also known as the authors final manuscript, or post print.
   • It is the version after peer review and before final publisher formatting or copy-editing.
   • This version may need to have an embargo added when deposited (depending on the publisher policy). You can find a full list of publishers that permit self-archiving on Sherpa Romeo.
3. Ensure your publication is linked to the grant using the ‘Projects’ link in Pure.

• Contact the Library open access team for help with self-archiving.
• Pure help and guidance.

You may not be able to self-archive if:

• You are publishing in a fully open access journal, (e.g. PLOS One), and are not able to have the work accepted for publication without paying an Article Processing Charge (APC).
• Your chosen publisher policy does not permit self-archiving.
• Your funders open access policy is not compatible with your chosen publishers’ embargo period. In these cases, you may need to go down the 'gold' open access route instead.