I’ve been looking at my notes from Monday’s workshop discussion looking at some of the current non-systems-specific issues facing OA practitioners in the UK at the moment. I’ve summarised the key points below and uploaded pictures of the notes from the day.
Key concerns discussed:
- RCUK Block grants have not yet been announced – this is of concerns to a wide range of institutions.
- Many institutions are expecting an increase in use of RCUK grants if gold OA is perceived to be an easier route to REF compliance.
- Repository/CRIS records without a Date of Acceptance is a major concern. Records imported from external sources such as Scopus will not have DoA information so this needs to be added manually.
- SHERPA REF aligns with current HEFCE policy (deposit within 3 months of the date of publication) whereas many institutions are telling authors to deposit on acceptance. This can cause confusion.
- More clarity is required regarding the use of exceptions for gold OA. Will these be counted in addition to the tolerance of other exceptions?
- Resourcing for supporting authors to deposit and to validate/sherps-check records is a concern. The REF policy means that records need to be checked on deposit (around the time of acceptance) and then again post-publication so the administrative burden is greater.
- How do we handle records from post-docs, late-stage-PhDs and ECRs whose REF-submission status is not yet determined?
- What do we do about recording evidence of date of acceptance? Current thinking seems to be “if you have it, keep it, if not – then don’t worry.”.
Dominic Tate – LOCH Project Manager
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