How do I make my journal articles open access?

If you are publishing a monograph or book chapter please see How do I make my books and chapters open access? 

Journal types and open access options

There are several different routes to making your journal articles and conference papers open access. You can publish immediately on the publisher’s website under an open licence (gold route), or publish behind a paywall and deposit an earlier version of the article manuscript into a repository (green route). If you are taking the gold route, a fee (Article Processing Charge, or APC) may be charged. 

Which route you take depends on the type of journal you choose to publish in. If you are publishing in a hybrid journal, the publisher may offer a paid open access option but you will only be able to take it if you have funding available, or if the journal is part of a deal. 

If you are publishing in a fully open access journal or platform that charges an APC, you will not be able to take the green route, and may only be able to publish in that venue if you have funding available, or if the publisher agrees to a waiver.

Below are the ways in which University and Sheffield staff and students can make their journal articles open access, as required by the REF and funders such as UKRI and the Wellcome Trust.

Share a version of your article via White Rose Research Online (green open access)

Deposit the Author Accepted Manuscript version of your journal articles or conference papers into White Rose Research Online via myPublications in order to make them open access via the green route.

Eligible journal articles and conference proceedings papers will be made available under a CC BY licence under the University’s Research Publications and Copyright Policy. In all other cases, the open access team in the Library will check and apply the publisher’s self-archiving policy (eg. an embargo period) when you deposit.

For more information, see our depositing guidance. 

Access funding to pay open access charges (gold open access)

We have several sources of funding which can be used to cover the open access charges for journal articles and conference proceedings if you are publishing in a fully open access journal or platform. There is no funding available for APCs in hybrid journals.

• If you are acknowledging UKRI or Wellcome Trust funding and are publishing in a fully open access journal or platform, please fill in this form to check that your article is eligible for funding.
• If you are not acknowledging UKRI or Wellcome Trust funding and are publishing in a fully open access journal or platform, please apply to the Institutional Open Access Fund using Application form for Institutional Open Access Fund (research articles)

Some funders also allow you to cost open access charges into your research grants (see REF and funder open access policies).

Please do not order an invoice for open access charges without agreement from the open access team. Invoices that have not been authorised in advance will remain the responsibility of the author for payment.
 

Publish open access as part of a transitional agreement (gold open access)

The University has ‘transitional agreements’ with a number of journal publishers, which allow the Sheffield-affiliated corresponding author to publish open access at no direct cost to themselves.

Please note, some publishers allow multiple ‘corresponding authors’ on an individual article. Please double check with the publisher which author is eligible for their institution’s transitional agreement.

For more information, see our list of agreements.

Publish with a journal that does not charge a fee (diamond open access)

There are many open access journals, and some monograph publishers which do not charge a fee to publish. This is known as ‘diamond’ open access. You can search for diamond open access journals using the Directory of Open Access Journals and filtering for ‘journals without fees.’

The University of Sheffield is committed to funding diamond open access initiatives. See a list of open initiatives that we have funded.

Do I have to make my journal articles and conference papers open access?

REF2029 and funders such as UKRI, Wellcome Trust, British Heart Foundation and NIHR all have policies obligating researchers to make their articles and conference papers open access. The types of articles in scope, when articles must be made freely available and what licence they are required to have, vary between policies. For more information, see REF and research funder open access policies.