Q. Which licence option should I choose when I'm publishing a journal article?

Most journal publishers offer authors a range of licence options to choose from but the licence mandated by many funders is a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).

If the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund will be supporting the publishing fees, authors must select a CC BY License. Most UK publishers should offer CC BY, however if a publisher does not, please seek further advice from the Open Research and Rights before agreeing to publish: openaccess@brunel.ac.uk 
 

 in particular if the Brunel Open Access supports the widest possible access to publicly-funded research and maximises opportunities to generate research impact and influence, while ensuring that authors and institutions are acknowledged for their work. They are commonly used by open access publishers as well as by publishers which offer both open access and subscription content. A charge is often made by the publisher for publishing open access.

Publishing requirements have recently changed for all Brunel authors. This change is driven in part by changes to open access policy which implements Plan S, which apply to national and international public-funded research.

This which mandate that the research outputs arising from funded research should be made open and allow maximum reuse with author acknowledgement under a CC BY License.

These include changes to forms of acceptable publishing licences for authors publishing articles and conference papers in journals where the article acknowledges public funding. 

Many popular journals do not fully support this and are not compliant. Some may only offer a CC-BY option to authors acknowledging certain funders. In a few cases, CC-BY NC licences may be allowed for articles published under an approved Transformative Agreement. Only Agreements negotiated by Jisc are eligible. 

Others may offer less inclusive options by limiting Opting for these, may mean that your research is not compliant with funder or REF conditions.   

Authors must follow the guidance on the Plan S and publishing your research web page linked below before submitting any journal article for publication. 

Authors must check using the tool linked on the page for each prospective journal, whether it offers compliant publishing and licence options, irrespective of whether they are publishing under paid open access (Gold route) or self-archiving (Green route). If you are publishing under a University affiliation, you should choose a licence that supports immediate open access in a published journal, or an open access self-archiving route in line with open access requirements.

If your research acknowledges a research grant, you should take steps to check that your selected journal supports your specific funder requirements before you submit using the Plan S Journal Checker Tool.  If your article is not compliant, you may be in breach of the grant conditions and may incur sanctions. You will also not be eligible to access publishing funds provided to support open access publishing, if you do not follow the steps required by the funder for your chosen journal. 

Brunel's open access policy in the Research Integrity Code recommends that University authors to choose a CC-BY licence option if available. Funding may be required, and authors should check that funds are available before submission. See How to apply for open access publishing funds below.

To check whether your selected journal or publisher will let you meet funder and REF open access requirements, you can use SHERPA-RoMEO, Sherpa-FACT and the Plan S Journal Checker Tool linked below.

The main licence options you may be offered include:

CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution Licence

Papers published under a CC BY licence comply with REF (Research Excellence Framework) and UK research funders' open access policies. 

You should choose a CC BY licence if your article acknowledges direct funding from a cOALition S (Plan S) funder, including UKRI, EU, Wellcome Trust and others. You should also choose CC-BY if the University has agreed to fund the publication charges from Brunel's Open Access Publishing Fund.

A CC-BY licence allows the widest possible dissemination and re-use with author attribution, which supports the reach and influence of your work. To comply, your work should be immediately available online without restriction and no later than 1 month from acceptance. To check whether your chosen journal complies with funder policy, use the SHERPA-FACT tool and the Plan S Journal Checker Tool linked below. 

CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial Licence

Papers published under a CC-BY NC licence comply with current REF policy (pending consultation and review) but may not always comply with research funder open access requirements. It is expected that outputs which do not meet open access funder requirements may not be eligible for submission to the next REF. 

Outputs made available under a CC-BY NC licence are eligible for REF submission. In some circumstances, other open licences may meet the minimum requirements. Ask the Open Research and Rights Office for advice if you're not sure how to comply with REF or your funder's requirements.

CC BY-NC ND: Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No-Derivatives Licence

This licence is no longer compliant with funder open access requirements as it creates barriers to access and reuse, potentially limiting influence, impact and benefits of publicly funded research.

Articles published under this licence which acknowledge funding from a Plan S funder, including UKRI, EU, Wellcome Trust, are not eligible to access publishing funds made available to support the sharing of publicly funded research. Where a charge is made for open access publishing, the article must be made available under a CC BY licence.

CC BY-ND: Creative Commons Attribution No-Derivatives Licence

This licence is not currently compliant with REF or funder policy. 

Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA)

This is a traditional publishing agreement where you assign full copyright ownership and distribution rights of your article to your publisher. If your research is funded by UKRI, European Commission or other Plan S funders, authors and institutions in receipt of funds should follow the Rights Retention Strategy outlined in the web page Plan S and publishing your research below,  to make sure the final version is available on a publisher website under a CC BY licence, or you retain the right to make the final version available in the institutional repository, under a CC BY licence without embargo immediately on publication. . . 

If another publication venue is not suitable for the research, this is the only available option.  If you choose this option you should to check whether your chosen journal meets the following:

1. allows deposit of your final accepted manuscript in an institutional repository under a CC BY licence. This should be the final peer-reviewed version after corrections.
2. no embargo on the accepted manuscript so it is available immediately on first publication (early online)

If a journal doesn't offer compliant options, you may then wish to consider alternative venues. To check a journal's open access archiving and embargo policy use SHERPA/RoMEO and the SHERPA-FACT databases for compliance with research funder policy. You can also ask the Open Access team for advice.