University releases new policy to help researchers exercise their rights

As well as ensuring a fairer environment for academic publishing, the new policy will also make it easier for work to be made openly available, helping researchers to enjoy the benefits of higher impact and reach associated with open research. An additional advantage is that authors will now find it much more straightforward to comply with funder requirements for open access.

The policy has been developed as part of a joint approach between the N8 consortium of research-intensive universities in the north of England. This collaborative effort to recognise author rights and harmonise open research practices was officially launched by York Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Charlie Jeffery at a special event to mark the occasion on 24 January. 

Under the new policy:

• Researchers will automatically grant the University a non-exclusive licence to make manuscripts of scholarly articles and conference papers publicly available.
• Researchers will continue to deposit the accepted manuscript of all journal articles into PURE.
• The University will make deposited accepted manuscripts openly available through the York Research Database and White Rose Research Online (under a CC-BY licence) when the final version is published by the journal.
• A straightforward opt-out will be available for instances where compliance with the policy is not possible.

Find out more about the new policy.

Information sessions

The Open Research team will be running sessions to explain the changes and answer any questions from researchers:

• Tuesday 7 February 11am to 11.45am
• Monday 13 February 3pm to 3.45pm
• Friday 17 February 2pm to 2.45pm
• Monday 20 February 10.15am to 11am

You can also book a consultation with the Open Research team, or email the team at lib-open-research@york.ac.uk if you would like to arrange a talk for your department, school or research group.