SPCR Open Access Policy and Process
Open Access (OA) is a publishing model in which peer-reviewed articles are made freely available online providing the work is properly attributed to the author and the author’s control over the integrity of their work is preserved. Open access is required on all NIHR-funded publications and researchers must seek to publish their research outputs in a peer-reviewed journal that is compliant with the NIHR OA policy.
Policy
The School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) follows the NIHR Open Access (OA) policy.
Open Access is a publishing model in which peer-reviewed articles are made freely available online providing the work is properly attributed to the author and the author’s control over the integrity of their work is preserved. Open access is required on all NIHR-funded publications and researchers must seek to publish their research outputs in a peer-reviewed journal that is compliant with the NIHR OA policy.
The main publication that is funded (in-part or in whole) is processed according to the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) Licence. If this is not possible then the authors must reconsider the appropriateness of the original publication
Funding
To receive funding the output must fall within the scope of the NIHR policy and adhere to the compliance checklist https://www.nihr.ac.uk/guidance-nihr-open-access-publication-policy
Please note that the following are not in scope
- Study Protocols
- Non-peer reviewed material
- Monographs
- Book chapters
- Edited collections
- Reviews commissioned by publishers
The output must accurately acknowledge the SPCR as funder accompanied by the project reference number and must carry the correct disclaimer:
This study/project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research (project reference xxx).
The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
Funding should be sought for publications in the following order
- Any underspend on the award must be used in the first instance.
- The possibility of obtaining institutional OA funds should be investigated
- Any uncommitted or underspend in the partner administration fund should be prioritised on OA costs
- The SPCR may provide additional funding once the points listed above have been exhausted.
*Note: This funding does not apply to Internship funding, or Seed corn / Bridging funding; and is only available until 31st March 2027. Further availability is dependent on the renewal of SPCR funding by NIHR.
The SPCR has a finite budget for Open Access costs. Once this has been reached, all further costs would need to be claimed directly from the NIHR. Should this happen, the SPCR directorate will communicate directly with award holders to let them know the revised process.
If a project is co-funded by the SPCR and another funder/s, the majority funder is expected to pay the Article Processing Charge
Process
If there is underspend on a project, and this is to be used to fund open access costs, the SPCR will facilitate appropriate project extensions to enable related payments to be made. Award holders should indicate their intention to use underspend in this way by contacting both their local research manager and the central team on spcr@keele.ac.uk in advance of the original end date of the project.
If all funding options as above have been exhausted, the article processing charges should be covered by the SPCR administration budget held locally. Please note that the SPCR directorate are unable to pay invoices directly to publishers.
The SPCR is required to keep a record of all publications that stem from our funded research and to that end, all publications must be logged with the central SPCR directorate. This should be done by filling in the publications form
A list of SPCR publications can be found on our website
Summary
Publications must be in scope
Publications must carry the correct disclaimer
All publications need to be recorded with the central SPCR team
Project underspend should be used in the first instance
Potentially contentious publications should be flagged