On 29 February 2016 Professor Chris Abell, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Cambridge sent the following letter to all Cambridge researchers and research students:

Open access for REF eligibility begins now

Dear Colleagues,

Open Access is now a requirement for REF eligibility

If you have had a journal article accepted for publication in 2016, you should visit www.openaccess.cam.ac.uk and upload the accepted* manuscript immediately. Do not send the published version.

The HEFCE policy states that for an article to be eligible for the post-2014 REF the accepted manuscript should be deposited in an open access repository as soon as possible after acceptance. The HEFCE REF Open Access policy affects articles accepted for publication after March 2016 so you should start depositing immediately.

Conference proceedings that have an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) are included, but other REF materials, such as book chapters, patents, etc. are excluded.

The University receives money to pay eligible Open Access costs for papers funded by the UK Research Councils, Wellcome Trust and certain other biomedical charities. These payments are also handled by the Open Access team who will authorise Article Processing Charges (APC) for eligible manuscripts submitted to www.openaccess.cam.ac.uk on acceptance for publication.

If you would like to know more about Open Access requirements, there is online information on Open Access or you can attend one of three dedicated information sessions for researchers, staff and research students from the University of Cambridge across the campus:

• Central Cambridge: Mill Lane Lecture Room 4, Friday 4th March, 1-2pm
• Addenbrookes site: The Institute of Public Health Large Seminar Room, Tuesday 8th March, 11am-12pm
• West Cambridge: Computer Laboratory Lecture Theatre 2, Friday 11th March, 12-1pm

Links

• Session bookings: http://osc.cam.ac.uk/events
• Upload your manuscript www.openaccess.cam.ac.uk
• Information on Open Access http://osc.cam.ac.uk/open-access
• Questions info@openaccess.cam.ac.uk

With best wishes,

Chris Abell

Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research

Note: Replies to this message will go in the first instance to info@openaccess.cam.ac.uk

*DO NOT send final published manuscripts or proof copies - like you, the Open Access team can download these from journal websites - only send author produced accepted manuscripts. The accepted manuscript is the final author-created version, incorporating peer-review changes but before any publisher work such as copy-editing or typesetting.