Writing a paper? Follow these six steps to make your research funder happy!

When all you want is to get your research published, understanding how to comply with your funder and REF publishing policies on open access and research data management can be overwhelming. To help you keep on top of it, here is our handy list of the six key steps you need to take:

1. Choosing where to publish: ​Check that your preferred journal’s open access options are compliant with​ requirements. Use the SHERPA tools (http://sherpa.ac.uk/fact for funder compliance and http://sherpa.ac.uk/ref​ for REF compliance) or email the Library to ask.
2. Acknowledgements: The article should include a funder acknowledgment in the format the University advises, e.g. “This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [grant number xxx​x].”​​​
3. Linking to your data: Any underlying research data should be published on a data repository such as CORD. Your paper’s acknowledgements section should include a data access statement linking to it, or if the data can’t be shared, explaining why. Compliance is monitored for RCUK-funded publications.
4. Article compliance: Forward the publisher acceptance email and post-review manuscript to accepted@cranfield.ac.uk as soon as possible. Library staff will check its compliance and add the item to the CRIS so it appears in your web profile.
5. Paying article charges (APCs): Check with the Library if support is available, as we have agreements with certain publishers to offset APCs, and a limited fund to cover APCs where there is an industrial partner. APCs are also eligible costs during the lifetime of Horizon 2020 projects.
6. Getting the right licence: Make sure the article licence is CC-BY if you’re paying for gold OA. If you’re using green OA then CC-BY-NC is also acceptable. This is crucial for REF eligibility.

Find out more on the intranet: Research, Learning & Teaching > Making your research Open Access > Simplifying paper compliance, or watch our two minute summary video.

For more help, talk to your Information Specialist. You can also contact Georgina Parsons on researchdata@cranfield.ac.uk for further guidance or to get started on CORD.

Image: “Engineering Paper” by abuakel, CC-BY-NC-SA