THE IRISH RESEARCH COUNCIL FOR SCIENCE, ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
STATEMENT OF POLICY RELATING TO:
THE OPEN ACCESS REPOSITORY OF PUBLISHED RESEARCH PAPERS
The Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology (IRCSET) has established and will promote the following policy relating to the placement of research publications in Open Access Repositories.
Where a research publication arises in whole or in part from IRCSET funded research (i.e. where one or other of the researchers concerned receives IRCSET funds in support of their endeavours), the following policy will be adhered to with effect from 1st May 2008.
Link here to the news release about this development.
THE FOLLOWING IS APPLICABLE TO IRCSET FUNDED RESEARCHERS
The IRCSET policy is adopted on the following key principles:
The intellectual effectiveness and progress of the widespread research community may be continually enhanced where the community has access and recourse to as wide a range of shared knowledge and findings as possible. This is particularly the case in the realm of publicly funded research where there is a need to ensure the advancement of scientific research and innovation in the interests of society and the economy, without unnecessary duplication of research effort.
1. This publication policy confirms the freedom of researchers to publish first wherever they feel is the most appropriate.
2. The effect of the policy is intended to increase the visibility of, and improve access to, the research funded by IRCSET and the State, where such research is intended to be published by the researcher(s) concerned.
3. The policy is based on recognised best practice. It is in keeping with the recommendations of the European Research Advisory Board (EURAB) Policy in relation to scientific publication. It is also in keeping with the combined OECD Ministers’ Declaration entrusting the OECD to work towards commonly agreed Principles and Guidelines on Access to Research Data from Public Funding.
Conditions to which IRCSET funded Award Recipients
should adhere:
1. All researchers must lodge their publications resulting in whole or in part from IRCSET-funded research in an open access repository as soon as is practical, but within six calendar months at the latest.
2. The repository should ideally be a local institutional repository to which the appropriate rights must be granted to replicate to other repositories.
3. Authors should deposit post-prints (or publisher’s version if permitted) plus metadata of articles accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals and international conference proceedings;
4. Deposit should be made upon acceptance by the journal/conference. Repositories should release the metadata immediately, with access restrictions to full text article to be applied as required. Open access should be available as soon as practicable after the author-requested embargo, or six month, whichever comes first;
5. Suitable repositories should make provision for long-term preservation of, and free public access to, published research findings.
6. IRCSET may augment or amend the above requirements wherever necessary to ensure best practice in Open Access.
How does Open Access work?
An Open Access Repository is a storage and retrieval system where published research findings and papers would be stored and made available for full, open and free access by the research community and the general public.
A number of Irish universities currently provide open access repositories of their own and a consortium of Irish universities is engaged in the development of a national open access repository system, i.e., connecting the repositories of each participating institution for fuller public accessibility.
In an Open Access Repository system, the usual copyright and fair practice considerations are not waived and publication on Open Access does not preclude prior publication in a recognised research journal or commercial publication.
Making scholarly publications available on "Open Access" allows them to be freely accessed by anyone in the world using an internet connection. The potential readership of Open Access material is far greater than that for publications where the full-text is restricted to subscribers only. Open Access repositories are also designed to expose the details of their contents to specialised web search engines.
Sources of further information:
IREL-Open Project
Please link here to access details of the IREL-Open Project Working Group, comprising of representatives of all Irish universities and tasked with building a federated open access repository service for Ireland.
IREL-Open Contact Points include the following:
Paul Sheehan (Librarian, Dublin City University), Working Group Chair
Telephone +353 1 700 5211 Email paul.sheehan-at-dcu.ie
Niamh Brennan (Trinity College Dublin), IREL Open Moodle site administration
Telephone +353 1 896 1646 Email niamh.brennan-at-tcd.ie
Please link here for a statement in June 2007 by the IUA Librarians Group (“IUA Libraries National Research Portal to raise the profile of Irish research findings”)