The University supports open access to research as part of its mission to be recognised globally for the quality of its research.

In response to requirements from the UK government and research funders, the University has introduced an institutional open research policy. This policy includes a sub policy on open access: Open Research Policy - OA Sub-Policy v1.0 (PDF, 342kB).

The University recognises the benefits of 'Green' open access as a means to achieve its goal of research-wide open access regardless of career level or funder. To enable this the University of Bristol have enacted a Scholarly Works Policy (PDF, 103kB) to ensure that authors retain the rights to make their accepted manuscripts open access immediately and with a creative commons attribution (CC-BY) licence.

This route is freely and equally accessible to all researchers - via subject specific repositories or Bristol's own repository, Pure - and this is at the core of Bristol's institutional policy for open access to research.

Key policy points

Before Publishing

• Ensure that you are submitting to a trusted journal
• Select the best publication venue for your work, considering more than just perceived reputation of the journal.
• Check your funders’ open access policies and follow them in addition to this policy
• Identify how any charges will be paid
• Choose the least restrictive licence possible
• Include the University’s Scholarly Works Policy statement when submitting your journal articles to publishers.
• Ensure that the publication includes or links to everything necessary to reproduce the research, such as data and code.

On Acceptance

• Add a record to Pure, describing your publication
• Upload a copy of the accepted manuscript to the Pure record if you are following the green open access route.

On Publication

• Update your pure record with the Date of Online Publication and a DOI or link to the publication

It is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with the full policy: Open Research Policy - OA Sub-Policy v1.0 (PDF, 342kB).