LOCH Project Update – September 2015

The three partners in the LOCH Project have all had busy few months, using the Summer to gear up for Open Access implementation in the new semester.

Events

• In early August, the project held a workshop in Edinburgh to talk about planning and implementation of Open Access requirements in REF 2020. Project partners presented case studies relating to activities at their universities and delegates were given the opportunity to start formulating or refining their own institutional plans.  Presentations are available at http://libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk/loch/2015/08/06/ref-open-access-planning-workshop-5th-august/.

External Promotion & Publications

• Dominic Tate attended the ELPUB 2015 conference in Valetta, Malta and talked about UK Open Access policy and the University of Edinburgh’s approach to implementing Green Open Access in light of the OA requirements for the forthcoming REF. A conference paper which briefly analyses the implications of these requirements and  the presentation slides are available at https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/10553.

Reusable Outputs – Deposit of Acceptance Email Templates

• Colleagues at St Andrews University have published a series of reusable email templates which can be used by repository staff in a variety of circumstances to encourage academics to transition to “deposit on acceptance” (as required for REF compliance). These are licenced with CC-BY and are available at https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/7506.

Reflections on the Last Few Months

Reviewing progress over the last few months, the Summer has been extremely busy, with LOCH Project partners working closely with colleagues from Elsevier and the PURE UK User Group to further develop functionality to support OA compliance for research funder and research assessment requirements.  Thinking back about our activities, they have mostly been informed by external policy and amendments to it – and balancing these external pressures with a need to provide robust processes and services to support researchers in their work.  Thinking about our conversations and deliberations over the last months – here are five top tips for Open Access implementation:

1. Devise, implement and maintain one steady internal policy on Open Access which provides best-fit for a range of external drivers (REF, RCUK, Wellcome, Horizon 2020 etc.).
2. Do not change internal Open Access policy to reflect changes in the wider environment – doing so could be unsettling for researchers and undermine confidence in your Open Access services.
3. Devise one very simple, clear message about what action researchers need to take and the support there is available to them.
4. Robust yet flexible planning and early adoption are everything. Do not underestimate the time it takes to achieve a change of culture around publication practice.
5. Don’t work in isolation – gain the buy-in of senior stakeholders, research administrators, library staff and academic research leads across your institution.

Looking Forward

We are now in the new Semester and April 2016 is rapidly approaching – and there is still much work to complete, but there are already a number of  dates for the diary and events in planning:

• A short workshop on Open Access implementation for PURE customers is planned to take place at the PURE UK User Group in Birmingham on Wednesday September 30^th. Please contact dominic.tate@ed.ac.uk for further details of this event.
• Dominic Tate will be presenting at a FOSTER webinar facilitated by Jisc and ARMA on Thursday 19^th This webinar will feature a series of case studies on Open Access advocacy – details are available at https://www.arma.ac.uk/events/training-and-development/online-resources/neventitem.2015-06-17.2792528938.
• A further Open Access planning workshop is planned for early December – this will take place in England – exact location and date to be confirmed and publicised shortly.

Dominic Tate – on behalf of the LOCH Project Team