Publishing Open Access is about to become more important than ever. On 1 April 2016 new regulations come into place. If you want your work to be eligible for the next Research Excellence Framework (REF), you have to deposit your peer-reviewed manuscript in SHURA on acceptance by the publisher.
Open Access requirements
For the next assessment, REF 2020, HEFCE have introduced an Open Access requirement. It comes into force on 1 April 2016. As from that date, the final peer-reviewed manuscript of any article in a journal or conference proceedings with an ISSN number:
- must be deposited in SHURA (http://shura.shu.ac.uk)
- must be deposited within three months of the date of acceptance
You must also send proof of the date of acceptance (such as an email or letter from your publisher) to library-research-support@shu.ac.uk. This evidence will be kept with the article’s record in SHURA.
The date of acceptance is the date that you receive a notification from your publisher that your manuscript has been peer-reviewed and that you have made all academically necessary changes in response to that review.
For more information download the Open Access and the REF document.