The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has adopted an open access policy. EPSRC is "the main UK government agency for funding research and training in engineering and the physical sciences, investing more than £850 million a year in a broad range of subjects—from mathematics to materials science, and from information technology to structural engineering." Previously in the UK, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the Natural Environmental Research Council, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council have adopted open access policies.
Here's an excerpt from the policy:
EPSRC Council has agreed to mandate open access publication, with the proviso that academics should be able to choose the approach best suited to their field of research. This mandate is now being implemented: EPSRC requires authors to comply with this mandate and ensure that all published research articles arising from EPSRC-sponsored research, and which are submitted for publication on or after 1st September 2011, must become available on an Open Access basis through any appropriate route. As now, publication costs may be recovered either as 'directly incurred costs' (if incurred before the end date of the relevant research project) or as indirect costs (and hence factored into the fEC indirect cost rate for the relevant research organisation).
| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |
