BHF Open Access Block Grant
BHF has allocated the University a block grant to support researchers to comply with their Open Access policy.
The British Heart Foundation open access policy applies to peer-reviewed primary research papers and non-commissioned review articles funded in whole or in part by BHF. These outputs must be made open access in PubMed Central within six months of publication. BHF has allocated the University a block grant for 2023/24 of up to £100,825 to support researchers to comply with their Open Access policy.
How to make your article open access
- When you get an article accepted for publication please send a copy to your local administrator following the usual process. The publication will be deposited in Pure, and if applicable, the Library will deposit in Europe PubMed Central as well. It will be helpful to include details of the research funder and grant award number if it is not already listed in the acknowledgements section of the paper.
- If your chosen journal requires payment then the Open Access team then please submit a claim via the Journal article open access claim form and we will check details then get back to you with your open access options. We aim to reply within 48 hours, but if you have an urgent query let us know and we'll do our best to reply sooner.
- Before placing an order for paid open access with the publisher please ensure that you have confirmation that funding is available, otherwise you will be liable for costs and will have to find an alternative source of funding.
Your Open Access options
Generally speaking there are three routes that are available to you to make your research open access. The default route is Green OA which you will automatically follow if you carry out step one above.
If you have published in a traditional subscription journal, with a paid open access option, the University will not pay the publication charges. Instead we will deposit the paper in Europe PubMed Central for free which will comply with the BHF open access policy. The Library will source the information from Pure so please make sure your paper is uploaded with the following information:
1. Author's Accepted Mansucript - not the publisher's PDF
2. Grant Award information - e.g. RG/16/10/32375
3. Any Supplementary material that has also been submitted to the journal
If a manuscript is submitted correctly, and is reviewed promptly, the process can take as little as two weeks. Some more information can be found on the Europe PMC website:
Europe PMC manuscript submission user guide
If you give us all the information we will do this on your behalf.
If you have published in a fully open access journal the University will cover associated article processing charges from the BHF block grant. A searchable database of journals that we can cover open access charges can be found here:
Directory of Open Access Journals
We will guide you through the options to pick if you let us know about the publication:
Journal article open access claim form
Once you have confirmation that funds are available then you can go ahead with publication and the Library will arrange payment, either via invoice or through an institutional billing agreement
If you have published in a journal where the University has a ‘Read & Publish’ deal and you are the corresponding author the article should automatically be made open access by the publisher for no extra charge. A list of publishers is available here:
Current 'Read & Publish' agreements
Each publisher has a different process, but the normal proceedure on the publishers web site is to confirm your affiliation as The University of Edinburgh and indicate your funding and the submission will be authorised by the Library.
If you publish in a subscription journal the University of Edinburgh’s preference is primarily to achieve Open Access through no-cost ‘green’ Open Access. This will ensure that funds are available for people to choose to publish in fully open access journals.