The British Heart Foundation open access policy applies to:
- Any published research outputs submitted for publication after 1 October 2020.
- Peer-reviewed publications fully or partially funded by British Heart Foundation.
- British Heart Foundation require electronic copies of any original research papers that have been accepted for publication in a peer reviewed journal to be made available through Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC) as soon as possible and, in any event, within six months of the journal publisher's official date of final publication.
How do I comply?
You must make your work open access via publishing open access in a journal or publishing platform or self-archiving a version of the work (green open access).
- You are required to include funding information within the acknowledgement section of the paper.
- If applicable, you are required to include a statement on how underlying research materials, such as data, samples or models, can be accessed.
Publishing open access in a journal or publishing platform (gold open access)
Check the publishing open access information page to find out if you are eligible to publish OA in a journal or publishing platform (gold OA), and to make an application for funding.
- The BHF open access block grant provided to the University is only available to cover article processing charges (APCs). Any additional costs (including page or colour charges) must be paid by the department.
- If choosing 'gold' open access, the output should be published with a Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC-BY). More information on Creative Commons licences.
Self-archiving (green open access)
British Heart Foundation permits self-archiving (green open access) with a six-month embargo.
Use Sherpa Romeo to check your publishers’ policy is compatible with your funders self-archiving policy.
To self-archive, deposit the Accepted Author Manuscript (AAM) of your publication using Pure immediately on acceptance. Ensure your publication is linked to the grant using the ‘Projects’ link in 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.
Ensure that you or your publisher has deposited to Europe PMC so it is freely available immediately or within six months on publication.
If neither route is compliant you will need to email research@bhf.org.uk for further guidance and you may need to publish elsewhere.
More information