To meet the Research Excellence Framework (REF) requirement that deposited material be discoverable and freely accessible online, you are advised to promptly self-archive your Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in Pure as soon as it is accepted.
Self-archiving the AAM
Self-archiving can be achieved either by:
My publisher says the manuscript is embargoed. Should I wait before depositing my AAM?
No, you should self-archive the AAM immediately after acceptance.
Many publisher licence agreements try to limit open access by imposing embargoes and restrictions on reusing the AAM. If relevant, any restrictions are managed by the Scholarly Communications Services team in Pure.
Most publishers have been notified of the existing contractual relationship and licence under Rights Retention.
With Rights Retention, university staff retain sufficient rights in the final accepted version of their outputs to make them openly accessible in Pure without embargoes.
On occasion, the publisher you have chosen may not comply with the REF self-archiving requirements. In these circumstances, an exception to the policy may be permitted. These exceptions are applied in Pure by the Scholarly Communications Services team.
Is the full text made immediately accessible right after uploading the AAM?
When your AAMs are deposited in Pure, whether directly or via a mediated deposit, each record is reviewed by the Scholarly Communications Services team.
The metadata for these outputs becomes immediately discoverable in Pure. This is permitted by the publishers. Where Rights Retention applies, the full text is also made openly accessible.
My output will be published open access. Do I need to deposit the AAM?
Yes, we recommend that you deposit your AAM on acceptance to ensure you meet the deposit requirement timescale, and in case there are any delays in conferring the correct open access status.
Once the openly licensed Version of Record (VoR) is published, the Scholarly Communications Services team can replace the AAM in Pure, whether it was deposited directly or via mediated deposit.
If the VoR is free to read but lacks a Creative Commons licence or other licence permitting copying and reuse, the VoR would not meet the REF requirements.
How is this policy compatible with funders?
If your research is funded, you will need to ensure you are also compliant with your funders open access policy. See funders and open access for specific guidance.
I have further questions. Who do I contact?
The Open Access team within Scholarly Communications Services will answer any questions regarding the REF open access policy.
For advice about using Pure, please contact the Pure team within Research Strategy and Services.