Some useful clarification of the ambiguities in the HEFCE instructions 
Stevan, for which thanks. But it would be easier now to count angels 
dancing on the head of a pin, than to make proper sense of the status quo. 

Best, 

Philip Hunter

<[log in to unmask]>


Quoting Stevan Harnad <[log in to unmask]>:

> A little bit of (easily resolved but very important) ambiguity has crept 
into
> the HEFCE instructions and FAQ:
> 
> Many items conflate DEPOSIT and OPEN-ACCESS DEPOSIT.
> 
> It is ever so important, in order to prevent misunderstanding and to 
ensure
> timely compliance, to clearly distingush DEPOSIT rules from OPEN-ACCESS
> rules.
> 
> DEPOSIT IMMEDIATELY UPON ACCEPTANCE (with 3-month grace period) has to 
be
> mandatory.
> 
> Rules concerning when the deposit is made OA should be clearly separate 
from
> this.
> 
> Here are the ambiguous passages: 
> 
> "The policy states that, to be eligible for submission to the post-2014 
REF,
> authors’ final peer-reviewed manuscripts must have been deposited in an
> institutional or subject repository on acceptance for publication. 
Deposited
> material should be discoverable, and free to read and download, for 
anyone
> with an internet connection. “
> 
> The article must be deposited immediately upon acceptance but deposits 
do not
> need to be made OA immediately upon acceptance.
> 
> 11. From what start point is the embargo period active, and how can this 
be
> calculated? (NEW)
> Embargo periods are normally calculated from the date of first 
publication,
> including online publication, but publishers may set their own policy. 
If the
> paper is not published by the time it is deposited, the embargo end date 
must
> be entered into the repository record at a later point. Institutions may
> choose to ask for ‘closed’ deposits from authors, and when they know the
> output has been published (perhaps assisted by a publications index), 
they
> may set the embargo period based on information found in SHERPA/RoMEO. 
Over
> time, publications metadata will evolve to include embargo information,
> allowing for this step to be completely automated. Publishers are 
committed
> to implementing the NISO-approved <license_ref> tag to provide the
> publication date, the embargo end date and any licence metadata for 
green
> open-access via CrossRef. Repositories will be able to ingest these 
metadata
> from CrossRef automatically, meaning deposits can be made accessible at 
the
> end of the embargo period without any additional manual work. 
> 
> Deposit is upon acceptance. Papers are almost never published 
immediately
> upon acceptance.
> 
> 19. Some publishers ask that institutions sign agreements before 
allowing
> deposit of outputs in the repository (specifying that embargo periods 
will be
> respected etc.) Must institutions sign these in order to create the
> conditions for compliance? (NEW)
> This is a question that concerns the relationship between institutions 
and
> publishers. If institutions wish to achieve open access via their
> institutional repository, and agreements are required by publishers in 
order
> for outputs to be deposited, then we do not see these as a barrier to
> compliance. If agreements are signed, we would welcome a brief report on
> these to be emailed to [log in to unmask]
> 
> Publishers have absolutely no say over deposit itself, only over when 
the
> deposit is made OA.
> 
> 21. What should Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust-funded 
authors
> do? (NEW)
> Authors who receive funding from the Medical Research Council, the 
Wellcome
> Trust and a number of other funders are required to deposit their papers 
in
> Europe PubMed Central. This repository is a permitted venue for 
complying
> with the REF open-access policy requirements. However, authors, when
> publishing in a fully OA journal (or a hybrid journal in which they have
> selected the author pays option) should not deposit their accepted
> manuscripts in Europe PubMed Central because the final, version of 
record,
> paper will be automatically deposited by the publisher into the Europe 
PMC
> repository. 
> 
> If this automatic deposit happens within three months of acceptance, the 
REF
> deposit requirements will be met and no further action is needed by the
> author. If automatic deposit does not happen within three months of
> acceptance, the author will need to deposit their manuscript elsewhere
> (typically in an institutional repository) in order to meet the REF 
deposit
> requirements. 
> 
> (1) Deposit is supposed to be immediately (within 3 months) of 
acceptance,
> not publication. It is OA that is calculated from date of publication.
> (2) How is it to be determined whether automatic publisher (OA) deposit 
has
> taken place within 3 months of publications? And what about
> publisher-embargoed OA?
> 
> MRC/Wellcome authors should, like all other authors, have to comply with 
the
> immediate-deposit requirements of HEFCE. It is a big mistake to loosen 
the
> rules for them. In PMC deposits, the “automatic deposit” can be as late 
as
> subsequent to the OA embargo (6-12 months), which is far, far later than 
the
> immediate-upon-acceptance requirement for everyone else.
> 
> 29. If a publisher actively disallows deposit, but has a ‘hybrid’ gold 
OA
> option, is the author expected to pay the APC in order to get permission 
to
> deposit? (NEW)
> No. We do not wish for authors and their institutions to pay publishers 
for
> permission to deposit their work. If the publication does not allow
> open-access deposit, and it is the most appropriate publication for that
> work, there is a relevant access exception in the policy. (This assumes 
the
> author is not already publishing via the gold route.) 
> 
> A publisher can only disallow OA, not deposit. There can be an exception 
for
> OA but not deposit.
> 
> These loopholes can easily be patched be very clearly reiterating the
> distinction between the no-exception immediate-deposit-upon-acceptance 
rule
> and all rules on OA timing, version choice, or repository choice.
> 
> Stevan Harnad
> 
> On Oct 31, 2014, at 6:30 AM, Ben Johnson (HEFCE) <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> 
> > Dear colleagues
> >  
> > *For information, and with apologies for cross-posting*
> >  
> > We have today published information and audit requirements for the 
policy
> for open access in the post-2014 REF. These can be found on our website 
at
> the following link, under ‘Technical resources’:
> http://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/rsrch/rinfrastruct/oa/policy/
> >  
> > We have also updated our FAQs to include a number of new questions 
(all
> marked with ‘NEW’):
> http://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/rsrch/rinfrastruct/oa/faq/
> >  
> > I’d be grateful if you could pass this to the relevant contact within 
your
> institution.
> >  
> > If you have any questions about these requirements or next steps, 
relevant
> contact information is given in the documentation. Alternatively, please
> email [log in to unmask]
> >  
> > Best wishes
> >  
> > Ben Johnson
> > Policy Adviser (Research)
> > HEFCE, Northavon House,
> > Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QD
> > 0117 931 7038
> > [log in to unmask]
> > www.hefce.ac.uk
> >  
> 
> 




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