Blood Cancer UK Policy

Policy Summary

Electronic copies of original research papers published in a peer reviewed journal, and that acknowledge Blood Cancer UK funding, should be made available through Europe PubMed Central within six months of the date of final publication. Researchers can comply via either the gold or green routes, but the funder prefers gold open access where this is compliant with their policy.

Gold Open Access

Blood Cancer UK expect their researchers to select publishing routes that ensure the work is available immediately on publication in its final published form, wherever such options exist for their journal of choice and are compliant with their policy.

To be compliant, the publisher must apply the Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC-BY) to the paper and deposit the final version in Europe PubMed Central under the same licence to be open access from publication. Researchers can determine which publishers are compliant using the SHERPA/FACT service.

The costs of gold open access can no longer be met from the now closed Charity Open Access Fund (COAF). Instead, these are now paid as part of Blood Cancer UK grant funds or by the funder on a case by case basis and subject to approval. Researchers may use any unspent grant money to pay for APCs or contact us to discuss their situation.

The university has also entered into transformative agreements with some publishers that may provide compliant open access at no additional cost to authors or the institution.

Alternatively, authors can comply with our policy by self-archiving their paper in Europe PMC within six months of publication as below, if the publisher permits.

Green Open Access

If a journal does not offer gold open access, or it does not meet the policy requirements above, authors may be able to comply via the green route by making the accepted manuscript open access in Europe PubMed Central within six months of publication. This is dependent on the journal's policy for self-archiving and authors are advised to check these using Sherpa/Romeo and to contact us to discuss any issues.

If permitted, authors should deposit their accepted manuscript in Europe PubMed Central via Europe PMC plus. All Blood Cancer UK grant holders will have been issued with a Europe PMC Plus account to enable this.

Researchers should apply any embargo period that may be required by the publisher before the accepted manuscript can become publicly accessible. Note that Blood Cancer UK require that this embargo period should not exceed six months from the final date of publication.

Some publishers will automatically deposit accepted manuscripts in PubMed Central where authors declare Blood Cancer UK funding. However, authors will need to confirm if their journal offers this service and that it will meet their funder requirements.

References

Blood Cancer UK open access policy