Following the rapid developments in Open Access (OA) in recent months and the implementation of the RCUK OA guidelines on 1 April 2013, it is important for researchers to be fully informed of the proposals, what it means for them and what they need to do.
If you are in receipt of RCUK funding (e.g. AHRC) or Wellcome Trust funding, you will need to comply with their OA publishing guidelines. There are two permitted routes to publishing under Open Access:
Gold route (Author-pays or Author Processing Charge APC): a fee is paid to the publisher to make the article freely and immediately accessible. Authors should apply to the University for APC funding. The RCUK policy currently mandates use of the Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ license CC-BY (see below).
Green route (institutional repository): a refereed, but un-copyedited version is deposited in a local institutional repository (e.g. ORA in Oxford) after an embargo period of 12 months for arts and humanities. This is University of Oxford’s preferred route. At the start, an embargo period of 12/24 months will be acceptable but it is expected that withinn 5 years the norm of 6/12 months will apply.
Below are key information resources for historians and a list of key history journals.
Open Access Oxford
The official Open Access website for Oxford University, it provides information about the University’s position on Open Access (Green Route wherever possible), give practical guidance on how to deposit using the Gold Route, how to apply to APC funding, OA requirements of major funders, news, blog and local support.
It also advertises WISER briefing sessions on Open Access. OA Oxford posts updates on Twitter as @oaoxford.
Oxford Research Archive (ORA)
Oxford’s institutional repository, ORA was established by the University some years ago as a permanent and secure online archive of research materials produced by members of the University of Oxford. It provides a means for institutional compliance with funders’ Open Access requirements (Green Route).
Open access: an information resource for historians in the UK (IHR)
http://openaccess.blogs.sas.ac.uk
Provides links to the key reports, policy documents and consultations, links to discussions online and in the press, a forum for debating the issues on their blog.
Creative Commons (CC)
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. It provides a choice of six licenses which sit alongside copyright laws. Two types of licenses are relevant for OA:
CC-BY (Attribution) is the RCUK’s preferred option. This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation
CC-BY-NC (Noncommercial). This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.About to submit an article? Quick step-by-step guide
note: do check Open Access Oxford for more details.
Was your research funded by RCUK, e.g. AHRC, and do you acknowledge their funding? If yes, you will need to comply with their policy on Open Access. Usually, in order to comply with your Funder’s requirements you need to deposit your article as either Gold CC-BY or as Green 12 months embargo, post-print, CC-BY-NC. For upto 5 years, it is possible that your funder may exceptionally accept a 24 month embargo. Please check.
If your journal is not already an Open Access journal, then see if can publish under the Green route. Using SHERPA/FACT, check if the publisher of your preferred journal allows you to publish the refereed version of your article in an institutional repository. Make sure that the journal article embargoe time in ORA complies with the funder’s policy (currently 12 months).
Note: “RCUK will consider only versions ‘as accepted for publication’ when assessing compliance with its policy.”
If you can go down the Green Route, then self-deposit the accepted post-print / post-refereed version by contributing to ORA or using Symplectic. Note that libraries will be continuing to subscribe to electronic journals, so the article will be accessible during the embargo period and thereafter via SOLO.
If you can’t go down the Green Route, you must go down the Gold Route in order to comply with RCUK.
Check SHERPA/FACT whether the Gold route is offered by the publisher. See Open Access Oxford FAQ: Funding & APCs for details about applying for APCs funding.
If the Gold route is not possible either, contact your funder.
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Key History journals and their self-archiving policies
Check your embargo details and funder’s policy. They vary!
Note regarding versions. “RCUK will consider only versions ‘as accepted for publication’ when assessing compliance with its policy.”
OUP definition of post-print: “A post-print is the final draft author manuscript, as accepted for publication, including modifications based on referees’ suggestions but before it has undergone copyediting and proof correction.”
The list below is constructed from SHERPA/FACT (last checked 27 April 2013). Double-check if needed.
American Historical Review (OUP) – Gold route NO; Green route No (24 month embargo)
Anglo-Saxon England (CUP) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Annales. Histoire, Sciences sociales (Armand Colin) – Gold route NO; Green route NO
British Journal for the History of Science (CUP) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Bulletin of the History of Medicine (John Hopkins UP) – Gold route NO; Green route YES
Contemporary European History (CUP) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Continuity and Change (CUP) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Cultural and Social History (Bloomsbury) – Gold route NO; Green route NO
Early medieval Europe (Wiley-Blackwell) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Economic History Review (Wiley-Blackwell) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
English Historical Review (OUP) – Gold route YES; Green route Possibly (24 month embargo)
European History Quarterly (SAGE) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
French Historical Studies (Duke UP) – Gold route NO; Green route YES
Frühmittelalterliche Studien (de Gruyter) – Gold route NO; Green route NO
French History (OUP) – Gold route NO; Green route NO
Gender & History (Blackwell) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
German History (OUP) – Gold route NO; Green route NO
Historical Journal (CUP) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Historical Research (Wiley-Blackewll) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Historische Zeitschrift (Oldenbourg Verlag) – Gold route possibly; Green route YES
History Workshop Journal (OUP) – Gold route NO; Green route Possibly (24 month embargo)
International History Review (Taylor & Francis ) – Gold route NO; Green route Possibly
Irish Historical Studies (Antrim W. & G. Baird) – no information
Isis (Chicago UP) – Gold route NO; Green route YES
Journal of African History (CUP) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Journal of British Studies (Chicago UP) – Gold route NO; Green route YES
Journal of Ecclesiastical History (CUP) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Journal of Economic History (CUP) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Journal of Global History (CUP) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Journal of Modern History (Chicago UP) – Gold route NO; Green route YES
Journal of Scottish Historical Studies (Edinburgh UP) – Gold route NO; Green route YES
Journal of the History of Ideas (Pennsylvania UP) – Gold route NO; Green route YES
Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences (OUP) – Gold route NO; Green route Possibly (24 months embargo)
London Journal (Maney) – Gold route NO; Green route YES
Medical History (Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Midland History (Maney) – Gold route NO; Green route YES
Northern History (Maney) – Gold route NO; Green route YES
Nuncius (Brill) – Gold route NO; Green route YES
Parliamentary History (Wiley-Blackwell) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Past and Present (OUP) – Gold route YES; Green route Possibly (24 month embargo)
Renaissance Studies (Blackwell) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Revue d’Histoire des Sciences (Armand Colin) – Gold route NO; Green route NO
Revue historique (Presses Universitaires de France) – Gold route NO; Green route NO
Rural History (CUP) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Scottish Historical Review (Edinburgh UP) – Gold route NO; Green route Possibly
Speculum (CUP) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Southern history (Southern History Society) – no information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (CUP) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Twentieth Century British History (OUP) – Gold route YES; Green route Possibly (24 month embargo)
Urban History (CUP) – Gold route YES; Green route YES
Welsh history review (University of Wales Press) – no information
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Need help? Then contact Oxford University OA support
- Email: open-access-enquiries@bodleian.ox.ac.uk;
- Chat to a librarian (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm)
- For history-specific enquiries, email Isabel Holowaty (History Librarian)
Related links:
- Finch Report
- RCUK Policy on Open Access – RCUK Open Access FAQs (pdf)
- AHRC Open Access to Research Outputs
- Open DAOR – The Directory of Open Access Repositories, lists more than 2,200 global institutional and subject repositories.
