University of Portsmouth Open Access Fund

Application Form

(Please return to )

In accordance with the University’s Open Access Publication Policy, the preferred choice of route to Open Access (OA) is by making the ‘post-print’ of a published output accessible through the Institutional Repository (i.e. upload to Pure and the doc becomes visible on the Research Portal). This is known as Green OA.

However, the University recognises that there may be times when meeting the requirements of HEFCE (for the next REF) or requirements of external funders may be difficult via Green OA, and that the payment of an Article Processing Charge (APC) is needed (i.e. OA via the Gold route).

Before completing this form to apply for APC funding, please ensure that the journal and other comparable journals you could target do not provide a Green OA option that meets the requirements of HEFCE and any external funders.

Applicants should complete this form and wait for the outcome before submitting their article to the journal. If this form is completed after submission, acceptance by the journal will not guarantee that APC funds will be made available. Provided all relevant information is supplied, a decision is normally anticipated within 10 working days.

Further help: Please see To check if a journal is compliant with HEFCE’s and funder’s OA requirements, please use the Sherpa Romeo or Fact databases . If you have any questions, please contact

Section 1 - To be completed by the communicating author

Applicant’s name (this should be the communicating author and they must be based at Portsmouth):
(If the applicant is not the communicating author, please contacted before proceeding.)
Email:
Department:
Journal:
Article title:
All authors’ names, as they appear on the publication:
Likely REF Unit of Assessment (UoA) / Research Centre:
Please attach a copy of the article.
About the journal and the article:-
  • This journal is peer reviewed. Yes / No
  • All author information and affiliations etc are present within the article. Yes / No
  • All authors are staff at the University of Portsmouth. Yes/No
  • Appropriate funder and other acknowledgements are present within the article. Yes / No
  • Where applicable, the article includes a statement of how the underlying research materials, such as data, samples or models, can be accessed. Yes/No (This is something that funders, including RCUK, are increasingly asking for).
  • Journal metrics derived from Web of Science:-
  • What is the journal Impact Factor?
  • What is the journal discipline ranking, according to Impact Factor?
These metrics can be found here:
  • Journal metrics derived from Scopus:-
  • Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP)
  • SCImago Journal Rank (SJR)
  • CiteScore (Please give both the value, category and ranking).
These metrics can be found here:
For help looking up the above metrics, please see -
(If the above metrics are not relevant to your subject area, please provide an alternative if possible. E.g. business related subject areas may prefer the ABS list).
  • This journal provides a suitable licence for the article. Yes / No
  • Is this a ‘hybrid’ or an open access journal?
  • If this is a hybrid journal, does it provide a Green OA option that meets the requirements of HEFCE (for the next REF) and any external funders? Yes / No
  • Is there another suitable journal that could be targeted instead that provides a Green OA option which meets HEFCE’s and any external funder’s requirements. Yes / No
  • How many successful applications have you made for APC funding (from the centrally held University fund) this financial year?
  • What is the cost of the APC charge? (Please provide a web link to the relevant page on the publisher’s website).

Research Funding
a) Who funded the research presented in this output? (tick as appropriate)
  1. ☐ Research Council (specify):
  2. ☐ Wellcome Trust
  3. ☐ Other Funder (specify):
  4. ☐ Internal funding
b) Please explain why the APC costs cannot be met by the funding body, other accounts held by author(s), Departmental or Research Centre funds?
c) Matched funding: State the author’s APC contribution and provide account cost code (suggested at least 50%).
Justification for OA publication
Explain why it is beneficial for this output to published via the APC payable (Gold) route. This should include justification of an output’s anticipated rating for REF, with reference to the REF criteria (below). (max 100 words):
REF criteria for assessing the quality of outputs are ‘originality, significance and rigour’:
  • world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour. (4*)
  • internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour but which falls short of the highest standards of excellence. (3*)
  • recognised internationally in terms of originality, significance and rigour. (2*)
  • recognised nationally in terms of originality, significance and rigour. (1*)

Section 2 - For completion by the Library Research Outputs Manager

Check list
  • Confirm the applicant’s response to the above questions.
  • Has this APC application been added to the database? Yes/No

Section 3 - For completion by UoA coordinator or Research Lead

(Non-RCUK applicants only)

Please consider the previous sections and your recommendation regarding this output for APC funding. In particular, please verify that the ‘Research Funding’ section is correct. (On completion, please return this form to ).
Name:
Comments:
Name and role:
UoA coordinator/Research Lead comments:
UoA coordinator/Research Lead recommendation (please select from the following):
1) Must be funded, high priority
2) Fund if possible for the full amount requested
3) Fund at a lower % of the request amount (state the amount)
4) Not justified

Section 4 - For completion by the ADR

Please give your decision with regards to whether or not this output should receive APC funding. (On completion, please return the form to .)