CORE a global aggregator of open access content and UK’s national aggregator will be assisting the UK Research and Innovation’s audit for the REF2021 by supplying the deposit date information for all UK REF outputs.
Compliance with the REF2021 Open Access Policy is established when an author deposits the post-print or Author’s Accepted Manuscript in a repository, institutional or subject, within 90 days from its acceptance. The REF audit committee will consult CORE for discovering the deposit date and decide whether an output is compliant with the policy or not.
The Research England’s REF Audit Guidance specifically states that:
“40. We will undertake verification of the dates that outputs became publicly available, particularly where they were published early in the REF period or are marked as ‘pending’ publication (for example, by obtaining a letter from the publisher). This will include checking the publication year against the Crossref4 database and against Jisc CORE”
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“46. We will assess each HEIs’ overall compliance with the REF 2021 open access policy by: … iv. Using Jisc CORE, comparing the datePublished and depositedDate and identifying where the number of days between the two dates is greater than 92.”
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“49. Where there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate a robust and well-managed process for open access, we will identify a set of outputs from each submission made by the HEI, and request further information to verify whether they are compliant with the policy, or whether an exception applies. Outputs may be selected randomly, or based on information in unpaywall.org or Jisc CORE, or a combination of the two. We will select outputs that have been returned as compliant with the policy, and/or outputs that have been returned with exceptions.”
For more information visit the “Audit Guidance” here.
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