The successful adoption of open access (OA) requires clarity and simplicity in policies and processes. But could there be greater clarity of these to start with? Jisc has been working with experts to help funders and institutions express and develop their policies in a clear and comprehensive format and has developed a schema for this purpose. This session will explore the schema and how institutions and funders can adopt it and clarify their OA policies.

1. Using OA policy schema
Bill Hubbard and Mafalda Picarra
Jisc

2. Overview of the session
»OA policy landscape
»Rationale for developing a policy schema
»An overview of the schema
»How to complete the schema
»Initial results
»Next steps
»And beyond . . .
03/03/2016 Using OA policy schema

3. OA policy landscape
»OA policy landscape is complex:
institutions, funders, publishers
»Policies are often expressed in
different terms and conditions
»Authors find challenges
complying with multiple policies
»Academic support staff find
challenges providing advice,
monitoring, and reporting on
compliance
03/03/2016 Using OA policy schema
219
9
556
73
Funder or funder and research organisation
Multiple research organisations
University or research institution
Sub-unit of research organisation
Data source: SHERPA/Juliet and ROARMAP

4. Rationale for developing a policy schema
»Funders and institutions can express their policies in
a consistent and structured way
»Authors can more easily access information that is documented in
a systematic way
»Authors receive clear guidance on distinct policies
»Services like SHERPA/Juliet can improve the quality and reliability
of their data
»New services can more easily mesh policy requirements
with permissions
03/03/2016 Using OA policy schema

5. An overview of the schema
» Organisation: details of the
organisation issuing the policy
» Policy: general parametric information
» Repository requirements:
requirements for depositing items and
for making the deposited items OA
» OA publishing requirements:
requirements for publishing inOA form
» Other: further information
Five sections:
03/03/2016 Using OA policy schema

6. How to complete the schema
» Field: usually a question for the
organisation to answer
» Contents: information to be provided
by the organisation (free text or
selection from drop-down list)
» Mandatory or Optional: whether
the field must be filled in or if it may
be left empty
» Guidelines: further information to
help the organisation provide the
‘contents’
03/03/2016 Using OA policy schema

7. Initial results
» From 25 UK institutions and funders,
the majority have the following
requirements in common:
› Deposit in a repository
› Deposit in institutional repository
› Deposit is required or recommended
› Version of deposit is the author's
manuscript post-peer-review
03/03/2016 Using OA policy schema

8. Initial results
» There are fewer commonalities in
the following requirements:
› Date of deposit
› Date to make deposited item
open access
› Embargoes
› Licences
03/03/2016 Using OA policy schema

9. Discussion
»How does this look to you?
»Does it fit what you need?
»Does your organisation have a policy?
»What facets are of particular importance to you?
»Do you use or accept embargoes? If so, why?
»What is the purpose of your policy? Could you buy into
a common policy?
03/03/2016 Using OA policy schema

10. Next steps
»Promote the schema and collect completed forms from institutions
and funders in the UK and internationally
»Analyse results and examine if there are changes in trends
»Promote dialogue at the national/international level about more
consistent and systematic expression of OA policies’ requirements
03/03/2016 Using OA policy schema

11. Meanwhile, elsewhere . . .
»Working on this policy schema for funders and institutions
»Working with publishers and publishing groups to identify
commonalities in policies
› Clarification – maybe move towards standardisation?
»Working with publishers and funders to look at compliance
workflows and best practice to support these
»Developing services which mesh policies – FACT and REF
»Developing ideas for opportunities for using harmonised policies
03/03/2016 Using OA policy schema

12. And beyond . . .
»In the past, the response from publishers has often been a need for
individualised conditions, complexity and diversity
› This has caused problems . . .
»As funding policies develop we see the same issues arising . . .
»As institutional policies develop we see . . .
»Do publishers, funders, institutions need individualised policies?
»To see change, there is a need for vision and leadership
03/03/2016 Using OA policy schema

13. jisc.ac.uk
Thank you!
03/03/2016 Using OA policy schema
Bill Hubbard
Deputy head scholarly
communications support
Mafalda Picarra
PASTEUR4OA project officer
bill.hubbard@jisc.ac.uk
mafalda.picarra@jisc.ac.uk