Application for Open Access Reimbursement Scheme

Introduction

Prostate Cancer UK invests in the most innovative research to create a step change in our knowledge of prostate cancer and the way it is diagnosed and treated. However, in order to maximise the impact and reach of the research we fund, findings must be freely available to our supporters and to the global research community through open access publication.

Prostate Cancer UK expects all grant holders to publish the main output of their research as peer-reviewed research articles, and we strongly support the unrestricted access of these papers, and the accompanying data, through open access.

To support open access publication, we offer a fund to contribute to the fees levied by journals to publish open access through the Gold route. Ultimately, we want to see the research we fund benefiting men with, or at high risk of, prostate cancer (and their families), and we don’t wish for publication to become a barrier to realising this impact.

Open Access Fee Reimbursement

Full eligibility criteria and further information on our process forreimbursing open access fees is detailed in the accompanying Guidance Notes appended to this application form. This fund is only eligible for grants awarded under the 2016/17 Research Innovation Awards & Travelling Prize Fellowships schemes, and for all grants awarded in 2017/18 or later(grants awarded earlier than this were able to include open access fees within their project budget and so are not eligible for this scheme).

In summary, an article is only eligible for support from Prostate Cancer UK if it is an original article resulting from research directly funded by the charity. The paper must be reporting primary research (review articles, editorials, book chapters etc. will not be accepted) and must have beenaccepted for publication in a recognisedpeer reviewed journal(as indexed in the PubMed journal list). Submission to Prostate Cancer UK for reimbursement of open access fees must be immediately after the paper has been accepted and BEFORE it is published.

Funding from Prostate Cancer UK must be properly acknowledged, and where multiple funders are acknowledged, we expect publication fees to be evenly shared between the relevant parties.

This is a limited resource and should only be used if institutional funds and/or other block grants to fund open access fees are not available. If funds are not available for open access via the Gold route, then it is our expectation that researchers publish their findings via the Green open access route instead (see accompanying Guidance Notes below).

Open Access Fee Reimbursement Application

To apply for open access fee reimbursement please complete the application form below in full and email it to (with the subject heading “Open Access Publication Fee Request”),along with the accompanying documentation stipulated in the check list (also below).

If your application is accepted, we will reimburse your institution once a fee for open access publishing has been incurred.

Details of Prostate Cancer UK grant

Grant Reference No.
Grant Title
Principal Investigator(s)
Institution
Contact details of applicant
regarding open access fees
(email & telephone)

Details of paper being published

Title of paper
Journal
Total open access fee
Other funding bodies contributing towards this research
Copy of acknowledgement statement

Attachment Checklist

Attached?
A copy of the paper accepted for publication
Confirmation of acceptance from the journal

Guidance notes

Eligibility Criteria

  • The paper must be an original article directly relating to a grant funded by Prostate Cancer UK in the following funding calls:
  • 2016/17 Travelling Prize Fellowships
  • 2016/17 Research Innovation Awards
  • Any round from 2017/18 onwards
  • Papers must be primary research (review articles, editorials, monographs, book chapters etc. are not eligible).
  • Papers must have been accepted for publication in a recognised peer reviewed journal.
  • This scheme will only fund Gold Route open access fees. If funds are not available for open access via the Gold route, then it is our expectation that researchers publish their findings via the Green open access route instead.
  • Open access fees will not be reimbursed if the host institution has its own open access funding arrangements.
  • Where multiple funders are acknowledged, we expect publication fees to be evenly shared between the relevant parties.
  • Open access fees will only be reimbursed if the request is received within 24 months of the project end date.
  • Publications must acknowledge funding from Prostate Cancer UK using the appropriate wording below.
  • We will only reimburse the costs associated with making a paper open access at the time of publication (the actual article processing charge). We will not reimburse any additional charges, e.g. additional page or colourcharges etc.
  • Submission to Prostate Cancer UK for reimbursement of open access fees must be received immediately after the paper has been accepted and BEFORE it is published.
  • Reimbursement will be made on a first come, first served basis for eligible grants. Prostate Cancer UK will however continually review this scheme to ensure reasonable coverage across its research portfolio.

Open Access Publication

There are two routes for open access, known as the ‘Gold route’ and the ‘Green route’. The Gold route involves payment of a fee to the publishing journal which makes the full text freely available to readers immediately after publication. The Green route does not incur a fee to the journal, but instead requires the author to deposit a copy of the full text in an open access repository after an embargo period (usually after a period of six months).

We expect our funded researchers to, at the very least, publish via the Green open access route, with an embargo period of no longer than six months. However, we strongly encourage publishing via the Gold open access route wherever possible, to maximise the reach and impact of the research findings. As such, we offer additional funding for Gold route open access publication for papers resulting from Prostate Cancer UK funded research.

Once the results have been published (or after any stipulated embargo periods), researchers are encouraged to make their results accessible and freely available by taking advantage of online open publishing platforms and repositories. This includes the dissemination of any negative or confirmatory results. To make it as easy as possible for grantholders to meet the requirement for open access publication of their results, Prostate Cancer UK is a member of the Europe PubMed Central funder consortium. This resource offers researchers a centrally managed, permanent and stable repository for their open access publications and simplifies the self-archiving process. Guidance on how to self-archive and details of other benefits and tools made available through Europe PubMed Central, are available on the Europe PubMed Central website:

Electronic copies of any research papers accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, supported wholly or in part by Prostate Cancer UK funding, must be made available through PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PubMed Central as soon as possible and no later than 6 months after publication.

Any relevant data and materials must also be made freely available to other researchers upon request (subject to any ethics, approvals and Intellectual Property consideration).

Acknowledgement Statement

In all outputs arising from Prostate Cancer UK funded work researchers must acknowledge our financial support in the following format:

“This work was supported by Prostate Cancer UK through a [Award Type] ([GRANT REFERENCE]).”

For work supported by multiple Prostate Cancer UK grants, all relevant grant references should be listed.

In certain cases, specific wording should be used in place of the above statement. In this instance your grant manager at Prostate Cancer UK will provide you with the alternative wording that should be used.

…and finally

Please note that we will continually monitor the cost and process associated with this open access reimbursement scheme. We reserve the right to withdraw this initiative or to change the eligibility criteria at any time.