Jisc, in collaboration with the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), have announced the availability of SHERPA REF.
SHERPA REF beta is a web service – funded and endorsed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) – that allows authors and institutions to quickly, accurately and easily check whether a journal they wish to publish in complies with open access (OA) policy for the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
The policy requires journal articles and conference proceedings accepted for publication after April 1, 2016, to be made OA to be eligible for submission to the next REF. Universities need to ensure their submissions are eligible and comply with current policy under the four UK higher education funding bodies: HEFCE, Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland (DELNI).
Jisc's survey of 243 authors and 377 research support staff revealed that over 80 percent felt it would be important, very important or essential to have confidence that any publication they produce will be eligible for the REF, suggesting that the SHERPA REF service will be widely used.
By enabling authors to easily check their compliance, SHERPA REF saves time and effort for universities in checking they meet the requirements – estimated to take on average between 30-60 minutes, according to the survey.
SHERPA REF builds on the current portfolio of SHERPA services which help authors and universities decide whether a journal allows them to comply with OA policy and on the options available to do so.
SHERPA allows universities and authors to quickly and accurately check if a journal of choice is compliant with the REF open access (OA) policy. It advices authors on how to comply and informs them of relevant embargoes or other issues arising from publisher and journal policies. Use of these services significantly reduce duplication of effort at an institutional level and offers efficiency gains for the sector as a whole and provides quality assured data.
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