Open Access Activity Bulletin October 2021

Celebrating International Open Access Week 25th October

In celebrating International Open Access Week, the following highlights from the activities of researchers across the university demonstrate how we continue to embrace and advance the spirit of Open Science and Scholarship.

Jump to Faculty Open Access Activity

Open Science, Scholarship and Access are very much within Swansea University’s DNA and there are several ways that staff and students can get involved in developing and informing our activities via the following groups.

Public Engagement Forum

The Public Engagement Forum is chaired by Dr Rhian Melita Morris and meets to discuss initiatives relating to the promotion, support and embedding of public engagement at Swansea university

Please email Rhian if you are interested in becoming involved: R.M.Morris@Swansea.ac.uk

UK Reproducibility Network (Swansea University Branch)

Dr Laura Wilkinson leads the Swansea University branch of the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) which is a national peer-led consortium that aims to ensure the UK retains its place as a centre for world-leading research. They do this by investigating the factors that contribute to robust research, promoting training activities, and disseminating best practice. They also work collaboratively with various external stakeholders to ensure coordination of efforts across the sector.

The UKRN’s meeting schedule and ‘Top Ten Tips’ for getting started with Open Research can all be found on the UKRN Swansea University Local Branch website and you can contact them at: ukrnswansea@swansea.ac.uk

Open Scholarship Forum

Swansea University’s Open Scholarship Forum is coordinated by Alexander Roberts and the Library Research Support Team and includes researchers and administrative staff from within faculties and professional services. The forum is a place to discuss and inform the development of university policy, research support and infrastructure in relation to Open Science and Scholarship.

To participate in the forum and the discussion on Microsoft Teams please contact: a.l.roberts@swansea.ac.uk.

Please remember that the Library Research Support team should be your first call when seeking Open Access guidance and advice. The Effective Research Publishing Handbook highlights publisher open access deals and discounts for Swansea University researchers, 12 Steps to Open Research, OA FAQs and more.

Swansea University Open Research Data Community

Swansea University Open Research Data Community

If you are looking for a safe place to store the data underpinning your research then please upload it to the Swansea University Open Research Data Community on the Zenodo Platform. Find out more about Research Data management at Swansea by visiting https://libguides.swansea.ac.uk/research-data-support-services/rdm-home

The Swansea University Open Research Data Community – https://zenodo.org/communities/swansea-university

Highlights from recent faculty activity

Faculty of Humanities and Social Science

English & History – Open Monographs, Open Access Resources, Articles and Journal

Dylan Thomas Online Collection

Dylan Thomas – all rights reserved

The new Digital Dylan Thomas Collection was made possible by an international collaboration between the Harry Ransom Centre at The University of Texas at Austin, the Dylan Thomas Trust and Swansea University.

The digital collection of the Welsh poet and dramatist Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) contains approximately 6,000 images of manuscripts of his poetry, stories, radio broadcasts, plays, and film scripts, as well as correspondence, drawings, photographs, and some career and personal papers is now available online to researchers and the general public for the first time.

By collaborating on the creation of digital preservation facsimiles of the objects held within the Dylan Thomas collection Swansea University has enabled wider access to these important research materials, not least for residents of Swansea, Thomas’s hometown, but for the rest of the world. Researchers, students, and members of the public now no longer need to spend considerable sums on travel costs, and accommodation to study this material and can instead focus on the material rather than the journey there. The burden of the travel costs associated with visiting collections such as this has historically been a barrier to wider engagement, and likewise meant that only those able to attract significant funding have been able to complete the journey. The digitisation of this collection has now brought about a democratisation of access.

Access the online collection at: https://hrc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15878coll98

Disability in the Industrial Revolution

Disability in the Industrial Revolution

Turner, D. M., & Blackie, D. (2018). Disability in the Industrial Revolution. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press. Retrieved Oct 18, 2021, from https://www.manchesteropenhive.com/view/9781526125774/9781526125774.xml

Disability in industrial Britain

Disability in industrial Britain

Bohata, K., Jones, A., Mantin, M., & Thompson, S. (2020). Disability in industrial Britain. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press. Retrieved Oct 18, 2021, from https://www.manchesteropenhive.com/view/9781526124326/9781526124326.xml

Journal Neo-Victorian Studies

Neo-Victorian Studies

The enterprise of the Swansea-founded OA peer reviewed journal Neo-Victorian Studies, General Editor: Dr Marie-Luise Kohlke is temporally double, staging an encounter between the Victorian and neo-Victorian, between the two periods’ aesthetic productions and material works, their discourses, ideologies, and socio-political contexts. It explores themes of modernity, alterity, and evolution through time and place in an ever more globalised and interconnected world. Two ages of literature and the arts reflect and converse with each other, the nineteenth century dreaming into the future, our own present moment reading and re-imagining the past, conjoined in an ever-changing interplay of light and shadows, visibility and obscurity, self and doubled other.

Access the journal at: http://neovictorianstudies.com/

Shakespeare, Race and Nation

Shakespeare Journal

Professor Kirsti Bohata has written an introduction to the special open access issue of the journal ‘Shakespeare’ on the subject of Shakespeare, Race and Nation

Read the introduction at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17450918.2021.1892815

Elizabeth Montagu Correspondence Online (EMCO)

Elizabeth Montagu (1778) By Frances Reynolds

Professor Caroline Franklin from English, together with Alexander Roberts from the Digital Humanities and Research Data Team, and Oxford Brookes University has developed and hosted the world’s first Elizabeth Montagu digital edition of letters and scholarly commentary at Elizabeth Montagu Correspondence Online (EMCO).

Access the online edition at: http://emco.swansea.ac.uk

Linguistics

National Corpus of Contemporary Welsh

National Corpus of Contemporary Welsh

The National Corpus of Contemporary Welsh, CorCenCC, has recently been launched with major input from Swansea University researchers. This is a language resource for Welsh speakers, Welsh learners, Welsh language researchers, and indeed anyone who is interested in the Welsh language. CorCenCC is a freely accessible collection of multiple language samples, gathered from real-life communication. Click on the Explore or Download tabs to access the corpus and start to investigate Welsh language as it is actually used. The corpus is accompanied by an online teaching and learning toolkit – Y Tiwtiadur – which draws directly on the data from the corpus to provide resources for Welsh language learning at all ages and levels.

Access the Corpus at: https://corcencc.org/

Faculty of Science and Engineering

Oriel Science – Public Engagement

Oriel Science is a Swansea University public engagement project that takes research done by Swansea researchers, crafts these into interactive and visceral exhibits, and places them at the heart of the community. It welcomes members of the public and students on organised school visits. It has also run and given presentations at festivals.  It is run by a small team including Swansea University researchers and is aimed at all members of the public to develop their familiarity with science, a.k.a. ‘Science Capital’ but with an emphasis on reaching underrepresented groups in the community. Published research shows that developing Science Capital is the best way to encourage Future Generations into university education.

Find out more about Oriel Science at: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/physics/research-and-impact/oriel-science-outreach/

Physics – Open Code and Open Data

Dr Ed Bennett from the Swansea Academy of Advanced Computing (SA2C) has successfully secured the first Fellowship offered by the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in Research Software Engineering. Fellowship—the only one awarded this year—competing with bids from the particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and astronomy research communities across the UK. Worth £600k, it will help drive the development of cutting-edge research software and promote the vital role of software in enabling high-quality research.

Dr Ed Bennett

The Fellowship will support Dr Bennett in his aim to help the wider research community by improving software they use, to support and train other researchers and to conduct his own research. 

Read more at: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/press-office/news-events/news/2021/04/university-software-engineer-wins-major-fellowship-award.php

Access the open data set at https://zenodo.org/record/5139618#.YWhCgRrMKUk on the Swansea University Open Research Community

Geography – Open Code, Open Data, Open Monographs and Citizen Science

Global Environmental Modelling and Earth Observation (GEMEO) group

Global Environmental Modelling and Earth Observation (GEMEO) group

One of Geography’s recent REF2021 impact case studies focusses on the work of Professors Peter North and Sietse Los as part of the Global Environmental Modelling and Earth Observation (GEMEO) group’s work to develop an open dataset of the earth’s reflectance. This work deals with code and datasets for improved weather forecasting and climate modelling. Open project partners included the UK Met Office, European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts, European Space Agency, and suchlike.

For a flavour of the work and its impact read more at: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/geography/research-and-impact/improving-weather-prediction/

European Barrier Atlas

European Barrier Atlas

Professor Carlos Garcia De Leaniz and the AMBER project seeks to apply adaptive management to the operation of dams and other barriers to free flow in European rivers to achieve a more efficient use of water resources, one that maximises benefits and reduces impacts.  With over 1 million river barriers, Europe has probably the most fragmented rivers in the world. Dams provide energy, water, fishing, and leisure opportunities to society, but also fragment rivers and can have a huge impact on biodiversity. Some barriers are obsolete and out of use and pose a flood and safety hazard and should be removed. AMBER is a consortium of 20 active partners, ranging from large hydropower businesses, river authorities, and universities.  Importantly, AMBER has also a citizen science programme which encourages people to locate barriers while fishing, kayaking or walking along the riverbank using the Barrier Tracker app. Data from the app has helped to build the AMBER Barrier Atlas, which is the first comprehensive open access database of rivers barriers in Europe (Nature 588, 436-441). These results are helping local and national authorities to prioritize barriers in need of improvement or removal.

Access the project website at: https://amber.international/

Open Monographs

Civic space—and desire—deranged; From Le Corbusier to Georges Perec

Doel, Marcus A. 2019, Civic space—and desire—deranged; From Le Corbusier to Georges Perec, Routledge

Read the open chapters at: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781351184137-2/civic-space—and-desire—deranged-marcus-doel

Through a net darkly; Spatial expression from glossematics to schizoanalysis

Doel, Marcus A. & David B. Clarke 2019, Through a net darkly; Spatial expression from glossematics to schizoanalysis, Routledge

Read the open chapters at: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781315645827-3/net-darkly-marcus-doel-david-clarke?context=ubx&refId=dad3293f-fdd6-4e17-8350-377dfcac6e76

UKRI Open Access Policy Update

UKRI Logo

The UKRI Open Access (OA) Policy sets out the requirements for publications that acknowledge funding from UKRI or any of its councils. The new OA policy requires immediate open access to be the default for research articles. This positive change will ensure that publicly funded research is openly available at the point of publication. 

The new policy comes into effect for research articles submitted for publication on or after 1 April 2022 and is similar to the cOAlition S and Wellcome open access initiatives. In-scope monographs, book chapters and edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024 are included for the first time. 

UKRI will provide a £46.7 million Open Access block grant to support implementation of this policy however, the ring-fenced budget for OA monograph publishing is not significant at £3.5 million for the sector. UKRI will release further information on the block grant and conditions of funding in December 2021 and in 2022 for monographs. Swansea University Library is responsible for supporting Faculties to achieve compliance with the URKRI Open Access policy and receives the block grant to support researchers.  

Requirements of the new policy 

For peer-reviewed research articles, reviews and conference papers with an ISSN, key requirements include: 

• immediate open access for research articles submitted for publication on or after 1 April 2022.  
• articles can be open through an open access journal or platform using the ‘gold’ route, or via ‘green’ self-archiving of the author accepted manuscript (AAM) in an institutional or subject repository without an embargo period. 
• authors can only access UKRI funds to publish in a gold open access journal or in a subscription “hybrid” journal covered by a JISC transitional agreement.  
• a  Creative Commons CC-BY licence or CC-BY-ND (by exception) is required, including a requirement to notify the publisher of this licensing at the point of submission. UKRI provide rights retention strategy (RRS) boilerplate text for ‘green’ self-archiving purposes. Using a rights retention strategy is a cultural shift for authors and will be a funder requirement. 

‘For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence (where permitted by UKRI, ‘Open Government Licence’ or ‘CC BY-ND public copyright licence’ may be stated instead) to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising’ 

• articles must include a Data Access Statement, even where there are no data associated with the article or the data are inaccessible. 

Key requirements of the new policy for monographs published on or after 1 January 2024 include: 

• the final version of a publication or accepted manuscript are made open access via a publisher’s website, platform or repository, within a maximum of 12 months of publication or the accepted manuscript must be deposited in a repository. 
• a  Creative Commons CC-BY licence is preferred, but NC and ND licences are permitted for monographs. 
• UKRI’s licensing requirements do not apply to any materials included within a long-form output that are provided by third-party copyright holders – see the policy exceptions. 

Preprints are not included within the new policy but the use of pre-print services across disciplines is encouraged. A statement on pre-prints is expected at some point. 

Read the new UKRI open access policy
Read ‘Shaping our open access policy’ by UKRI

Read the cOAlition S ‘Primer on the Rights Retention Strategy by Stephen J Elgin. 

The Library Research Support team will be adding policy updates to the Effective Research Publishing Handbook as they become available. Details of JISC transitional publishing agreements applicable to Swansea University researchers are also available from this resource. Faculty administrators and directors are encouraged to make contact for further guidance to ensure that researchers are able to comply with the new funder requirements.

Contact ISS-Research@swansea.ac.uk / openaccess@swansea.ac.uk

Academic Publishing 101: The Journal Process

Often we assume that new researchers are already aware of how the process of submitting an article to a journal goes, and how long it takes, so this is a back-to-basics post to take you through the process step-by-step.

First things first: Choosing a Journal

There seems to be a new Journal announced online every other week, and this includes ‘predatory journals’ so how can you tell if a journal you may want to submit to is legitimate?

There are some online services designed to help you choose a journal – for example, Elsevier Journal Finder, Journal Selector. 

1. Check their website; does it look professional? Does it link to other sites, for example members of the editorial board and their home institutions? Is the grammar and spelling up to scratch?

2. Are they indexed? To be indexed by the main databases (like Scopus and Web of Science) a journal has to adhere to strict criteria. Google Scholar is not transparent in the way they indexed and therefore can’t be reliable. 

To check whether the journal is indexed go to Scopus or Web of Science and search the Journal title. 

3. Some Journal titles are very similar so it is a good idea to check the ISSN. The ISSN should appear on the Journal ‘About’ pages, and you can check it on a site like Sherpa Romeo or search the Library Hub Discover for more information about the Journal. If it doesn’t appear on either of them, be wary. 

What is a Journal Impact Factor and can it help me here?

The Journal Impact Factor is a measure reflecting the annual average (mean) number of citations to recent articles published in that journal. The JIF can be useful in comparing the relative influence of journals within a discipline, as measured by citations. However, it cannot be used as an indicator of the quality of individual articles or authors

If you’re still not sure, just get in touch and email me; e.c.downes@swansea.ac.uk

Submission process

The turn around time between submitting your article, having it reviewed and acceptance varies between discipline. It can take weeks or months so check the journal’s submission information for an estimate

Open Access and Copyright

The point at which decisions on Copyright and Open Access have to be made varies between journals but is generally around the Acceptance stage.

 You need to know a few things;

1. If you intend to publish the ‘traditional route’ or in ‘subscription articles’, this means that you do not pay any publishing costs, but your article will be behind a paywall for anyone outside of a university, or in a university which doesn’t have a subscription to that journal. In this case you will be asked to transfer copyright to the publisher.

In this case, to comply with Swansea OA Policy, you will need to upload the Accepted Manuscript into RIS as ‘Green Open Access’

2. If you intend to publish Gold Open Access with the journal, this tends to result in the journal requiring an ‘APC’ – Article Processing Charge usually £2500+. More information about APCs and financing them are found on our Open Access page. 

If this is the route you choose, the article is assigned a ‘Creative Commons‘ license which allows you to keep the copyright. The article is then freely available to anyone whether they subscribe to the journal or not.

For more information about Copyright and Author’s rights please see our Copyright guide, especially ‘Scholarly Works – Author Agreements with Publishers’

After Acceptance

What do I need to do after the article has been accepted?

1. Create a record in RIS following the guidance. This ensures that your paper complies with REF rules if it is eligible. If you don’t have the full details to fill in the record, that is fine. You or our team can fill in the details later, when information like the DOI, Volume and Issue number become available.

2. Share your work! If you don’t promote your work, who will?

SAGE Open Access

WHEEL (Wales Higher Education Electronic Library)

SAGE has an agreement with WHEEL (Wales Higher Education Electronic Library) from 2020 to December 2022.

The details of the agreement are as follows: 

Subscription journals
Corresponding authors publishing an article in 900+ subscription journals in the current SAGE Premier package which offers hybrid open access publishing (SAGE Choice) can be published open access at a highly discounted rate of 200 GBP.  

Authors do not need to take any action to benefit from this offer. SAGE will contact all eligible authors to inform them of the agreement and invite them to the SAGE Open Access Portal to take any additional steps needed to make their article open access under the terms of this agreement. 

Gold open access journals 
Corresponding authors publishing an article in a gold open access journal are also entitled to a 20% discount on the prevailing article processing charge (APC) for that journal. Click here for the participating Gold journal title list. This discount will be applied automatically in the SAGE Open Access Portal. Where an author is eligible for more than one discount, discounts cannot be combined but the highest discount available to the author will be applied to the APC due.

Eligible corresponding authors should use their Swansea University email address in all applications.

• The Author(s) can then accept or reject Open Access Publishing, and if selecting Open Access, digitally sign the publishing agreement. The Author(s) have 14 days to make the selection, otherwise the article will continue to be published in subscription format.
• The Author(s) then select a billing method for the £200 fee. They can pay directly by Credit Card or Invoice; or they can assign a third party bill-payer.
• Please note: this discount cannot be applied retrospectively (after the 14 days has elapsed).
• Some titles are excluded from this agreement and are listed here.

Corresponding authors who are funded by UKRI can apply for Swansea University financial support by completing the online application form at the point of acceptance. Full details are on the Open Access Library Guide.

SAGE Choice FAQs

Open Access Publishing with Wiley

                               

Publish Your Open Access Research Articles with Wiley
From March 2020 Swansea University is a participating UK institution in partnership with Wiley and the JISC Open Access Agreement for Institutions. This researcher support is provided by the Swansea University Library Service.

Image: WOCinTech Chat (CC-BY-2.0)

Author’s may publish articles in any of Wiley’s fully Gold Open Access, or OnlineOpen hybrid (subscription) journals with no open access costs to the author*. A list of Wiley’s Open Access and hybrid subscription journals is available from the Open Access Author Dashboard together with access to an Author Compliance Tool so you can check if you meet your funder obligations.

To publish without having to pay additional Article Publication Charges (APCs), the corresponding author must be from a participating UK institution and the article must have been accepted on or after 2 March 2020.

Eligibility criteria:

• Your manuscript must have been accepted on or after 2 March 2020
• You must be the corresponding author who is affiliated with a participating UK institution at the point of acceptance
• You must publish open access in a fully gold OA journal or a hybrid (subscription) journal that offers OnlineOpen
• If publishing in a hybrid (subscription) journal, you must order OnlineOpen at the point of acceptance by using the Wiley Author Services workflow 
• As the Wiley Open Access Account holder, the Library Research Support team will authorise your request provided you meet the eligibility criteria. Please use a Swansea University email address to help us authenticate your application. We will contact you directly if we need additional information before approving your request
• This agreement cannot be used to cover additional charges (e.g. cover, color, and page charges), which individual journals administer separately
• Please ensure that you acknowledge your funder and provide details for any supporting data in the published article. This is a requirement for research articles supported by many funders, including UKRI

Quick Links:
How to Order Online Open
Author Compliance Tool

*subject to availability of sufficient funds and approval from eligible institutions’ Wiley Open Access Account holders.

You can find further details on our Open Access Library Guide.

The British Library Webinar Series

Running online throughout May 2020 for Researchers

Image: Steve Cadman, CC-BY-SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

The British Library are running a series of webinars throughout May that may be of interest to many of you.

How to access digital resources: a free webinar for researchers
Friday 1st May, 10.30-11.30am
Researchers working from home may find now, more than ever, that they cannot access all they need to do their research. This webinar will introduce the concept of open access, and the various tools and resources that enable access to the resources researchers need.
Details and sign-up here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4784745156984703756

The British Library’s Shared Research Repository
Thursday 7th May, 2.30-3.30pm
Creative and cultural organisations require repositories that look good, are attractive to users and support a wide range of non-text research outputs. Join us to learn more about our shared repository for UK cultural heritage organisations.
Details and sign-up here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5003834943448442636

Introduction to research data, data services and DataCite at the British Library (and beyond)
Thursday 14th May, 2.30-3.30pm
This webinar will provide an introduction to research data and how to use persistent identifiers such as DOIs to make research data and other digital outputs like theses and grey literature findable and citable online. This webinar will also provide an introduction to DataCite, an international non-profit organisation, which enables the ability to create DOIs for digital objects.
Details and sign-up here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6958681955238901260

Introduction to EThOS: the British Library database of UK theses
Thursday 21st May, 2.30-3.30pm
The British Library service known as EThOS is effectively a shop window on the amazing doctoral research undertaken in UK universities. With half a million thesis titles listed, you can uncover unique research on every topic imaginable and often download the full thesis file to use immediately for your own research. This webinar will offer a guided walk through the features and content of EThOS, and the research potential for making use of EThOS as a dataset.
Details and sign-up here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1072813692823727372

Project FREYA: How persistent identifiers can connect research together
Thursday 28th May, 2.30-3.30pm
This webinar will showcase the latest developments from the EC-funded FREYA project, including the PID Graph which provides a method to discover the relationships between different researchers and their organisations and find out the full impact of research outputs. It will also describe upcoming developments planned in the final year of the project such as a Common DOI Search.
Details and sign-up here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6895938324199891724

Please join the team at the BL for as many of these as you can. They will all last approximately 25-30 minutes with time for questions.

Do you want to publish an Open Access journal? Publish with us!

We are an institutional online publisher of Open Access electronic journals. Our catalogue of titles allow readers to access and use the content free of charge under a Creative Commons licence.

We are growing this service and welcome enquiries from Swansea University researchers considering starting an academic journal. We do not charge the editors of journals for publishing with us on the Open Journal Systems platform (OJS). Editors wishing to transfer established journal titles to Swansea University are welcome to apply.

If you would like to find out more why don’t you come along to the next Academic Publishing Coffee Morning?

At this event, you can:

• Speak to experienced academics and professional services staff who already publish journals
• See what is really involved in editing and publishing academic publications
• Learn about OJS, the journal publishing platform supported by Swansea’s Digital Humanities team
• Find out what support we can offer you to set up your own peer-reviewed academic journal as part of Swansea’s digital press

Wednesday February 12th, 11:00 – 13:00 – Nanhyfer Workzone Sem Rm 01 on the Bay Campus

Contact: digitalhumanities@swansea.ac.uk for further information.

Swansea University Digital Press – Open Access Journal Proposal
You can provide information about your prospective publication by completing the online form.

The Game of Open Access – Training in 2020

What is it?

The Game of Open Access is a board game developed by staff at the University of Huddersfield. The aim is to engage researchers with the key concepts and tools required to meet Open Access mandates. Through the use of playful learning, it aims to develop an understanding of the role of Open Access through the initial idea for an article to its acceptance for publication.

In essence, you play as a researcher making your way through the research process landing on square where you pick up a card with a question about Open Access at Swansea University, then discuss and answer the questions to make your way around the board.

The Game is ‘customizable’, so if there are specific questions relevant for your department, we can include them.

Why should you take part?

The Game of Open Access is a fun way of getting to grips with points of confusion around open access (the difference between Green and Gold for example, or which type of manuscript to upload to RIS), in contrast to sitting listening to me talk for an hour. Also there are sweets.

Who is it for?

The game is relevant to researchers at any stage of their career, whether it’s your first introduction to open access or you need a refresh on Swansea’s specific policy. It can also be useful for professional services staff who support researchers. We have previously run the session in the College of Engineering, and the main feedback was not enough questions!

Interested? Get in touch with us to arrange a session in your college by emailing Ellie Downes, Research Librarian at e.c.downes@swansea.ac.uk

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Publish Your Own Open Access Journal Drop-In Event

Are you thinking about starting a new open access journal, perhaps in an emerging field of research? Swansea University supports the open source software Open Journal Systems (OJS)

OJS Logo

Come and meet us for coffee and a chat
Wednesday December 4^th  2019, 10 am – 12 noon
Taliesin Mall Room, Singleton Park Campus

• Learn about OJS, the journal publishing platform supported by Swansea’s Digital Humanities team
• See what is involved in editing and publishing an open access academic journal
• Speak to experienced academics and professional services staff who already publish journals
• Find out about the support on offer to help set up your own peer-reviewed academic journal as part of Swansea’s digital press
• You can get customized support from the university for the installation and implementation of this software, including the server space, at no cost

Digital Humanities Lab

Library Research Support

Pre-Prints at Swansea University

Introduction;

Pre-prints are not new. Some pre-print servers such as arXiv have been going since 1991; however, there is increasing interest in the use of pre-prints as part of the move towards open access publishing and open scholarship in general.

What are they?

Pre-prints are versions of your paper before it has been submitted to peer-review. The use of pre-print servers varies significantly between disciplines, being an embedded and well known practice in areas like Physical Sciences, and almost unheard of in others.

Why should I bother?

Posting a pre-print on a specific pre-print server or repository means your work has the potential to reach other researchers in your discipline and citations can accumulate, earlier. It is also useful to gather early feedback on the paper from your peers, before the official peer-review process of the journal you submit to.

Will my paper be scooped?

Contrary to some fears, pre-prints can actually help protect your work from being ‘scooped’. Most servers register the papers on receipt enabling you to establish provenance should another very similar paper be published after yours. Many pre-print servers enable you to add a DOI allowing you to keep track of your paper and its citations.

Swansea Specifics

Swansea University researchers are not restricted from using preprint servers by the institution. Individual researchers considering submitting a paper do need to check the funder and journal to see if any restrictions apply. This can be done using SHERPA/ Romeo and searching the journal you are considering submitting to.

As stated above, there are preprint servers for different disciplines and institutional repositories can host preprints. The benefits of submitting preprints in terms of citations, engagement and impact will not materialise unless the author/college publicise the paper themselves especially in disciplines which are only just starting to use pre-print servers.

ISS Research Support are happy and able to assist researchers with information regarding journal restrictions, and which pre-print server may be most appropriate. We have a list of pre-print servers and open access repositories here.