Reference Number |
Version Letter |
Executive Sponsor |
Officer Responsible for Policy/Procedures |
Consultation Process |
Date of Approval and Committee and/or Executive Officer |
Effective Date |
APEGP |
1 |
PVC Research |
Director of Information Resources and Research Services |
Research Committee |
|
|
1. INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE OF THE POLICY
Aston Publications Explorer is Aston’s Open Access publications repository and aims to create a permanent record of the research output of the University and to maximise the visibility, usage and impact of this research through global access. Input of publications will be through the Pure current research information system which will hold metadata for the publications and provide the route to populate Aston Publications Explorer with both metadata and full text.
The policy also applies to the publications available in Aston Research Explorer, which is the public-facing portal to Pure.
1.1 Purpose of the Policy
The governance issues in this policy support the operation of both Aston Publications Explorer and the publications in Aston Research Explorer.
1.2 What is covered by the Policy
The policy sets out which publications should be included in Aston’s Open Access repositories, their format, retention, copyright and takedown procedure and associated responsibilities.
1.3 Who is Covered by the Policy
The policy covers the responsibilities of those contributing to, operating and using publications in Aston’s Open Access publications repositories.
2. WHAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN ASTON’S OPEN ACCESS PUBLICATIONS REPOSITORIES
2.1. Research Publications
Metadata and full text for all research publications including journal articles, conference papers, theses, and technical reports should normally be included. Where full text has been deposited, the publication is included in Aston Publications Explorer. All publications are included in Aston Research Explorer.
For books and book chapters metadata should be included plus the full text where copyright agreements permit.
Any digital material that relates to research output in any supported format including multimedia should also be included.
Research data should be added to Aston Data Explorer. For Open Access compliance purposes, and to ensure publications are discoverable and can be cited by others, we recommend that new publications are routinely added by authors – see Aston University Open Access Policy and Code or Practice.
2.2. Age of Publications
Any research output, no matter how old, may be included as long as it is in electronic format and this is consistent with any publisher copyright agreement.
2.3. Preferred format
PDF is the preferred file format, although other formats are also acceptable when file conversion to PDF is not possible.
2.4. Retention
In order to build up a permanent record of research, items will be retained indefinitely.
2.5. Publications from staff who leave Aston
The deposits of staff who leave Aston University will remain in the repository. Staff who leave are welcome to archive that work in their new institution’s repository
2.6. Publications from new members of staff
New staff are encouraged to archive work from posts in other institutions.
2.7. What should not be included in Aston’s Open Access Publications Repositories
Publications where any of the following apply should not be made public, although they may need to be included in Pure for internal purposes. Authors should contact Library Services so ensure that access is properly restricted:
- If the material is to be commercialised, i.e. it relates to a patent
- It contains confidential information
- Its inclusion would infringe a legal commitment by the University and/or the author
Aston Publications Explorer and Pure focus on research, so University administrative reports and learning and teaching materials are excluded.
3. PRESERVATION
The repository will try to ensure continued readability and accessibility. Items will be migrated to new file formats where necessary.
In the event of Aston Publications Explorer and / or Aston Research Explorer being discontinued, best efforts will be made to transfer the contents to another appropriate repository.
4. COPYRIGHT AND TAKEDOWN
4.1. Access and Re-use of the contents of Aston’s Open Access Publications repositories
- Metadata will be accessible to anyone free of charge. The metadata may be re-used in any medium without prior permission and re-sold commercially provided the repository is mentioned.
- Aston Publications Explorer AND Aston Research Explorer allow users to re-use full-text and other full-data items under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY NC ND) licence. This means that users must give appropriate credit to the authors and link to the licence. Users may not re-use the material for commercial purposes. Users cannot distribute material that has been remixed, transformed or built upon the original published output.
Where a full-text or other full-data item has a licence that is more restrictive or permissive than the CC BY NC ND default licence, this licence should be adhered to.
4.2. Copyright
- The copyright for the peer-reviewed author’s accepted manuscript (AAM) is applied according to the Sherpa and/or publisher’s web pages. In some instances, authors may need to seek permission to deposit their AAM’s. This is the responsibility of the author and items will not be deposited unless permission has been granted. Initial checks regarding copyright restrictions can be made by researchers by using the SHERPA/RoMEO database[1]. The Open Access and Research Repository Specialist(s) will be responsible for resolving copyright issues connected with making the publication itself accessible, for validating the metadata and ensuring that an appropriate version of the publication has been deposited.
- The University may choose to restrict access to works, whether in part or in full, if copyright permission is in doubt or unavailable.
- If you believe an item has been deposited in violation of copyright, please refer to the Takedown Policy below.
4.3. Takedown Policy*
If the administrators of Aston Publications Explorer and Aston Research Explorer are notified of a potential breach of copyright, or receive a plausible complaint indicating a violation of any law (including but not limited to laws on copyright, patent, trademark, confidentially, data protection, obscenity, defamation or libel) the Resource or Contribution involved will be withdrawn from the repository as quickly as possible pending further investigation. A decision on whether the Resource or Contribution may be made available again may take some time if it is necessary to seek legal advice to resolve the complaint.
4.3.1. How to complain
If you have discovered material in Aston Publications Explorer and Aston Publications Explorer which is unlawful e.g. breaches copyright, (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, please contact the Open Access and Research Repository Specialist in writing (and preferably also by email) providing the following information:
- Your contact details.
- Full details of the Resource or Contribution, including the author, title and resource address (URL).
- The website address where you found the content
- The nature of your complaint.
- An assertion that your complaint is made in good faith and is accurate.
- If you are complaining about breach of your own copyright, please state, under penalty of perjury, that you are the rights owner or are authorised to act for the rights owner.
Please send your complaint to:
FAO: Open Access and Research Repository Specialist (Re: Takedown)
Library Services,
Aston University,
Aston Triangle,
Birmingham,
B4 7ET.
or send an email with the message header ‘Takedown’ to openaccess@aston.ac.uk
4.3.2. 'Notice and Takedown' procedure
- Aston will acknowledge receipt of your complaint by email or letter and will make an initial assessment of the validity and plausibility of the complaint, possibly taking legal advice.
- The Resource or Contribution will be temporarily removed from Aston’s Open Access publications repositories pending an agreed solution.
- The Open Access and Research Repository Specialist will contact the contributor who deposited the material. The contributor will be notified that the material is subject to a complaint, under what allegations, and will be encouraged to assuage the complaints concerned.
- The complainant and the contributor will be encouraged to resolve the issue swiftly and amicably and to the satisfaction of both parties, with the following possible outcomes:
- The Resource or Contribution will be returned to Aston’s Open Access publications repositories unchanged.
- The Resource or Contribution will be returned to Aston’s Open Access publications repositories with appropriate changes.
- The Resource or Contribution will be removed from Aston’s Open Access publications repositories.
- If the contributor and the complainant are unable to agree a solution, the Resource or Contribution will remain unavailable through Aston’s Open Access publications repositories until a time when a resolution has been reached.
*The Takedown section of this policy is based largely on the notice and takedown policy developed by Jorum. It is available on the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licences.
5. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Authors are responsible for depositing sufficient basic bibliographic metadata so that the publication can be identified and full text of their publications within the timescales specified on the Open Access webpages. More sophisticated metadata may be added by an Open Access and Research Repository Specialist.
Open Access and Research Repository Specialists will load metadata (and occasionally full text) where is it available from external sources, eg publishers or databases such as Scopus, and will then request the full text from the authors. This is a supporting route to adding publications and does not remove the author’s responsibility to deposit their publications.
The validity and authenticity of the content of submissions is the sole responsibility of the author.
The Open Access and Research Repository Specialist(s) validate records before they are published to ensure that metadata quality and full text versions / access meet the repository’s criteria and are in line with journals’ permissions for deposit in institutional repositories (as publicised on the journals’ and/or Sherpa web sites).
6. Definitions
Author’s accepted manuscript: Final, peer-reviewed version of an article, before the publisher’s layout and typesetting is applied; also known as the author’s accepted manuscript or post-print version.
Metadata: Information held as a description of stored data. Typically, the metadata of a publication record is its bibliographic details.
7. RELATED REGULATIONS, STATUTES AND POLICIES
Aston University Open Access Policy and Code of Practice
Aston University Cookies and Privacy Policy
Aston University Data Protection Policy
Aston University Intellectual Property Policy
Governance Policy for Aston Data Explorer