Q. How do I publish open access as a student, doctoral researcher or non-research staff author?

Student and non-research staff authors

Student authors, including doctoral researchers and non-research staff are not subject to the University Open Access Mandate and are not eligible for submission to REF.

As such, authors in these groups, are not normally eligible to access publishing funds which are limited and reserved for corresponding authors who are required to conduct research. However, open access options are encouraged where available. Some journals offer fee waivers to authors without access to funding. 

If a non-eligible author has a Brunel co-author who meets eligibility requirements, the eligible author is able to apply for open access funding provided the output and publishing venue meets eligibility and compliance requirements.  Authors must apply before submitting the manuscript, as it will not be possible to fund open access publishing for venues which do not meet University and funder open access conditions.
In all cases, the corresponding author must have a current affiliation to Brunel at the time of submission. 

The research staff author is also responsible for uploading the accepted manuscript upon acceptance for publication to BRAD and must  take the steps required to ensure the article complies with all relevant open access requirements. See the links below: How to apply for open access publishing funds and Plan S and publishing your research, for more information.

Authors who do not qualify directly or indirectly for funding, should follow Green open access self-archiving options. You can therefore choose to publish traditionally except in the following circumstances:

• where your article has a Brunel research staff co-author
  • the main Brunel staff co-author is responsible for meeting the relevant open access requirements, including applying for open access funding, if applicable.The corresponding author must have a current affiliation with the University, or be affiliated with the University at the time of submission for publication. Where a submission is rejected and resubmitted, after staff have left the University, authors will not  normally be eligible to access Brunel funds, but exceptions may apply for specific funders. 
• where you are on a UKRI funded studentship or your article acknowledges UKRI funding
  • UKRI funded students are encouraged to make work available via open access mechanisms, either through publishing or archiving in a suitable repository. It will normally be the case that the Brunel doctoral supervisor is a co-author / contributor on outputs arising from doctoral research, and they will be eligible to apply to access open access publishing funds. You should seek further advice from the Open Research and Rights Office and your supervisor / Principal Investigator (PI).