The Green route to Open Access describes depositing a version of a research output, published in a traditional journal, in an open access repository. This route is free but deposits may be subject to an embargo period and publishers may also place restrictions on the version that can be made available by the author. You can check the Green Open Access policies of a particular journal title using Jisc's SHERPA/RoMEO service. AECC University College encourages all its researchers to make their outputs Open Access via the Green route.
The Gold route to Open Access means that the output is openly available to all on the publisher's website. This route often incurs a fee known as an Article Processing Charge (APC), some external funders may cover these costs. Articles published via the Gold route should still be uploaded to the institutional repository.
To be eligible for submission to REF 2021, you must ensure that the full text of your journal articles and conference proceedings (with an ISSN) are uploaded to the repository within 3 months of acceptance.
The Library and the REF Working Group will provide support on questions regarding eligibility for the next REF 2021 and will aim to support you to ensure your outputs are eligible for submission. Please contact us if you have any questions.
Most publishers permit the deposit of an accepted author manuscript (AAM), or publisher PDF, in an open access repository however in some cases an embargo period must be completed before the manuscript can be made openly available. Where this is the case the Library & Learning Services Team will add the manuscript to the repository as a closed deposit. Once the embargo period has elapsed the manuscript will be made available, making the output available.
In order to be eligible for the REF, embargo periods must not exceed 12 months for REF Main Panels A and B, or 24 months for REF Main Panels C and D. Jisc's Sherpa REF beta service can be used to check the compliance of the journal with REF policy.