Open Access and Research Assessment in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Beginning in April 2016, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) will require that all journal articles and conference papers are deposited in a subject or institutional repository immediately at the point of acceptance for publication and made Open Access as the earliest possible opportunity, subject to publisher embargoes. This requirement is a prerequisite to journal articles and conference proceedings being weligible for submission to the next Research Assessment Exercise (REF). This new association between Open Access and research assessment is rapidly leading to a large-scale transition to Open Access in UK-based universities. This transition will bring many benefits, but the scale of UK universities’ Open Access operations brings a number of challenges to the implementation of this requirement. This poster will examine some of these challenges and explain how a number of universities are dealing with them.