SFI Open Access policy 2022 – FAQs
Updated: 11/2022.
What is Open Access?
According to The European Commission,1 “Open access (OA) can be defined as the practice ofproviding on-line access to scientific information that is free of charge to the user and that is reusable. A distinction is usually made between OA to scientific peer reviewed publications and researchdata.”
What is subject to SFI’s Open Access Policy?
All research publications arising in whole or in part from SFI-funded research are subject to SFI’s OpenAccess Policy. Any peer-reviewed publications (i.e., original articles and conference proceedings - thisrequirement does not currently cover books, book chapters, or review articles) must be immediately
available from the date of publication (no embargo permitted), under a Creative Commons attribution
licence (CC-BY)2 with Rights Retention wording3.
Why does SFI require peer-reviewed publications to be openly available?
SFI is a member of cOAlition S4 – a consortium of funders who support Plan S5. Plan S is an initiative forOpen Access (OA) publishing which was launched in 2018.
SFI has aligned its Open Access Policy6 with the principles of Plan S and, therefore, since 01/01/2021
all peer-reviewed publications (i.e., original articles and conference proceedings – this requirement
does not currently cover books, book chapters, or review articles) must be immediately available fromthe date of publication (no embargo permitted), under a Creative Commons attribution licence (CC-BY)
with Rights Retention wording. The publications can be Open Access on the publisher’s platform (seeGold Open Access, Transformative Agreement, and Diamond Open Access), or through self-archiving,by using the Rights Retention wording and depositing the publication in an Open Access repository(see Green Open Access).
Furthermore, as a public funder, SFI has an obligation to ensure that we achieve value for money fromthe public investment and making outputs available to all stakeholders (including members of thepublic, practitioners, policy advisers and industry) helps us to achieve that goal.
What are the benefits of publishing Open Access?
Open Access to scholarly outputs improves the speed of research, increases the potential for global
collaboration and ensures maximal economic and societal benefit can be realised.
Making your outputs openly available also increases the visibility of your research which has been
associated with higher citation rates. For more information on the benefits of OA publishing see
McKiernan et al (2016)7.

1

https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2020-11/ec_rtd_background-note-open-access.pdf

2 https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/
3 https://www.coalition-s.org/resources/rights-retention-strategy/
4 https://www.coalition-s.org/

5

https://www.coalition-s.org/plan_s_principles/
https://www.sfi.ie/funding/sfi-policies-and-guidance/open-research/
7 https://elifesciences.org/articles/16800
6

I’m ready to publish my article/conference proceeding, but I’m not familiar with OA requirements.
How do I make sure I’m complying with SFI’s Open Access policy?
Please take a look at the step-by-step Publishing Guide, which will help you navigate the steps forpublishing Open Access.

Won’t publishing OA hurt my metrics (like H Index)?
To complement and support SFI’s open access mandate, SFI became a signatory of the San Francisco
Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)8 in 2019, making a formal commitment to assess thequality and impact of research through means other than journal metrics, such as journal impact factors.
In January 2022, SFI reinforced its existing commitment to the core principles by joining DORA as amember at the Contributor level. As a member signatory, SFI has aligned its grant evaluation processes
with DORA principles. To this end, the grant evaluation process now focuses on quality, content andcreativity and does not focus on quantitative journal-based metrics and H-index indicators as proxies
for quality. To support this, SFI introduced a narrative style CV in 2019, in-line with DORA principles.
The declaration has become a worldwide initiative and to date, more than 2,400 organisations and18,500 individuals in 153 countries have signed up to DORA.
How do I make my publication Open Access?
Please refer to our Publishing Guide for a step-by-step checklist for publishing Open Access.
There are four routes to make your research publications openly available: The Gold OA route, theGreen OA route, the Diamond OA route, and with a Transformative Agreement (TA). Please note thatyour existing SFI grant funds can be used as a contribution towards costs to publish via these routes.
If choosing the Green OA route, including the required Rights Retention statement applies a Creative
Commons attribution licence (CC-BY), to an Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM)9 arising from asubmission to a peer-reviewed journal.
The Journal Checker Tool10, developed by cOALition S, is a helpful way of checking if your journal ofchoice is compliant with SFI’s Open Access Policy, and what Open Access routes are available to you.
For further information on OA journals, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)11 provides anonline directory of high-quality, OA, peer-reviewed journals. However, please be aware that DOAJ may
include hybrid journals (which are not compliant with SFI’s Open Access Policy, unless a
Transformative Agreement (TA) is in place) in their records.
SHERPA ROMEO12 is a useful resource to find information on copyright and self-archiving policies(including embargo periods) of different publishers.
Why should I include Rights Retention wording?
Rights Retention13 enables you to retain intellectual ownership rights in your work, allowing you tomake it Open Access at the time of publication.

8 https://sfdora.org/9An Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) is the version of the work as accepted for publication, including all changes madeduring the peer review process.
10 https://journalcheckertool.org/
11 https://doaj.org/
12 https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/
13 https://www.coalition-s.org/rights-retention-strategy/Publishers commonly require authors to sign exclusive publishing agreements which restrict whatauthors can do with their research findings. The Rights Retention Strategy allows researchers topublish in their journal of choice, including subscription journals, and provide Open Access incompliance with Plan S.
By using the Rights Retention wording in a peer-reviewed article or conference proceeding, Open
Access can then be achieved by depositing the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) (the version ofyour work as accepted for publication, including all changes made during the peer review process) inan open access repository (i.e., the Green Open Access Route).
SFI’s requirement for grant holders to use the Rights Retention statement is included in the Grant
General Terms & Conditions14. Therefore, when an applicant accepts an award from SFI, they will beagreeing to SFI’s Grant Terms and Conditions which takes precedent over any subsequent contractsuch as that from a publisher.
What needs to be included in the Rights Retention wording?
One of the two following statements (whichever is most appropriate) should be included in all
submissions of original research to peer-reviewed journals:‘This publication has emanated from research conducted with the financial support of Science
Foundation Ireland under Grant number [ ]. For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied aCC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission’.
Or‘This publication has emanated from research supported in part by a grant from Science Foundation
Ireland under Grant number [ ]. For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a CC BY public
copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission’.
What is Gold Open Access?
Gold OA refers to making your publication available through the publisher’s platform, where thepayment of an Article Processing Charge (APC) is often required (Your SFI grant funds can be used tocontribute to costs in this instance).
In cases where the journal has a Transformative Agreement (TA) in place, the APC has been included in
the contract between the publisher and your institution/organisation, and you will not be required topay an APC.
What is a Transformative Agreement, and how can I avail of them?
A Transformative Agreement (TA) is a contract negotiated between institutions (libraries, national andregional consortia) and publishers that allow anyone (i.e., the general public) to access content in ajournal without paying any fee and can allow researchers to publish OA free of charge.
IReL15 has negotiated a number of TAs with publishers for Irish institutions. TAs typically allow
researchers to publish OA free of charge – to check if you are eligible, see IReL’s website or contact
your library services in your institution.

14 https://www.sfi.ie/funding/sfi-policies-and-guidance/sfi-general-terms-and-conditions/
15 https://irel.ie/

What is the Green route to Open Access?
The Green OA route involves depositing the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) (the version of yourwork as accepted for publication, including all changes made during the peer review process) in an OA
repository. This is achieved by using the Rights Retention wording and is referred to as self-archiving.
SFI, as a member of cOAlition S, supports the Rights Retention Strategy, which allows authors to retain
ownership of their work by using a Creative Commons or ‘CC-BY’ licence. As a result, SFI requires that
the Rights Retention wording is included in all research publications before submission to peerreviewed journals or platforms.
What is the Diamond route to Open Access?
The Diamond OA route refers to publishing in a journal free of charge, that is entirely open access toreaders.
What is ‘Creative Commons’ or CC-BY licensing?
Creative commons or CC-BY16 is a type of copyright licence where the original creator (author(s))
grants the public permission to reuse, distribute and build upon their existing work. Importantly, theoriginal author/s must be attributed to any reuse of the original work.
There are some variations of the CC-BY licence and further information on this can be found on theScholarly Kitchen Blog17.
As an exception, you can request that your publication is published under a CC-BY-ND18 licence. If you
choose to use this licence, you must apply to SFI for approval in advance.19
What routes are not an option for me as an SFI-funded researcher?
To check whether your journal of choice is compliant with SFI’s Open Access Policy, and which routes
are available to you, refer to the Journal Checker Tool.
If your publication has resulted from research supported by SFI funding, you are not permitted topublish in Bronze OA journals (due to the inability to apply a CC-BY licence). You can only publish in ajournal that applies an embargo to a publication if you immediately upload your Author AcceptedManuscript on an Open Access repository (i.e. the Green OA route).
What is a Hybrid Journal?
A ‘hybrid’ journal operates both a subscription and OA model. The author can choose to pay an APC tohave their publication made OA in a journal where a subscription is already supported by theirinstitution. The publisher has already been paid annual subscription fees for access to its content andfor processing the submission of scholarly papers. If the author pays an APC for OA, the publisher ispaid twice to do the same amount of work. This is called ‘double-dipping’ and is an unnecessary use of
already limited resources. For this reason, Hybrid journals are not compliant with SFI’s Open Accesspolicy, unless a Transformative Agreement is in place.

16 https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/
17 https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2020/04/20/copyright-creative-commons-and-confusion/
18 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/
19 Please contact researchpolicy@sfi.ie for any queries.

What is the bronze Open Access route and why is not compliant with SFI’s Open Access Policy?
The bronze OA route is when an author publishes a peer-reviewed paper in an OA journal that does
not support CC-BY licensing. As CC-BY licensing is a requirement of SFI’s Open Access Policy, theBronze route is not considered a compliant OA route.
What about a subscription journal – can I still publish here?
Yes, it is possible to still publish in a subscription journal that either has a Transformative Agreement inplace, or if you deposit your Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in a suitable repository (i.e., theGreen OA Route).
Will SFI pay for Article Processing Charges (APCs) in Open Access journals?
As per the Grant Budget Policy20, your existing SFI grant funds can be used to pay APCs for Plan S
compliant OA journals. SFI will not offer specific additional funding for OA charges outside of yourgrant budget.
More specifically, SFI recommends the use of up to 1% of the total grant awarded for article
processing charges; this is referred to in the final approved budget accompanying the Letter of Offer.
For example, if you have a grant of 300,000 euro, then 3000 euro of the grant may be assigned tocover publication costs. However, grant holders are afforded flexibility in the use of their budget
during the term of the award and as such, may move funds between categories21. SFI encourages
grant holders to consider the appropriateness of an APC and to satisfy themselves that the costassociated with an APC is justified.
SFI is aware that this is an evolving situation and how we provide support to our community will bereviewed iteratively, based on changes to average APCs, as well as the prevalence of transformative
agreements in Ireland and how they operate. Also, in line with Plan S, SFI expects that the costs
associated with publishing are fair, reasonable, and transparent.
I have not allocated any budget for Article Processing Charges in my grant – what should I do?
You can remain compliant with SFI’s OA policy by taking the Green OA publishing route, or by availingof the TAs that are currently in place in Ireland22.
Furthermore, according to SFI’s Budget Reallocation Policy23, as a grant holder, you are able to movefunds between categories (there are exceptions) and so, if you find that you have under-expenditurein certain budget lines, these monies could be utilised to cover the costs associated with OApublishing.
Should I include Article Processing Charges (APCs) as a separate budget line?
Yes, you can include costs associated with APCs in a separate budget line in your grant application.
This will support SFI’s Finance and Grants team in tracking expenditure associated with OA publishing.
Does SFI’s Open Access Policy apply to Discover Awards?
Yes, it applies to all SFI Grants (awards).

20 https://www.sfi.ie/funding/sfi-policies-and-guidance/budget-finance-related-policies/SFI-Grant-Budget-Policy-November-

2021.pdf
21 https://www.sfi.ie/funding/sfi-policies-and-guidance/budget-finance-related-policies/
22 https://irel.ie/open-access/
23 https://www.sfi.ie/funding/sfi-policies-and-guidance/budget-finance-related-policies/

Should data arising from SFI-funded research be made openly available?
Yes, SFI recommends that all research outputs (including data, accompanying metadata, software etc)
arising from the research it funds should be submitted to discipline-specific OA repositories that arerecognised by your research community, and should be aligned with FAIR principles - Findable,Accessible, Interoperable & Reusable24. However, SFI also recognises that this may not be possible incertain circumstances and therefore, the data should be as open as possible and as closed asnecessary. The associated publication should include information on how to access the relatedresources. Science Europe’s Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research DataManagement25 provides some guidance on selecting trustworthy repositories. In line with Science
Europe recommendations, many SFI Programme Calls now require a Data Management Plan (DMP)26
at the submission stage, detailing data management responsibilities and resources, including
adherence to FAIR principles.
How do I find a suitable repository?
In the first instance, you should consider uploading your Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) to yourinstitution’s repository. Where an institutional repository does not exist and/or to maximise thevisibility of your work, OpenDOAR27 is a useful resource for identifying appropriate repositories todeposit publications and other research outputs in. Your institutional librarian may be able to provide
guidance about suitable data repositories. CoreTrustSeal28 is another useful resource for browsingavailable research data repositories.
A list of mandatory and recommended requirements for repositories has been developed by cOAlition
S29.
SFI acknowledges that many repositories are still transitioning towards the mandated andrecommended requirements.
Where should I deposit associated data and software?
SFI recommends that data, accompanying metadata and/or software should be submitted to
discipline-specific repositories that are recognised by your research community. The Science Europe‘Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management’30 provides someguidance on selecting trustworthy repositories. Where no specific repositories exist for your researcharea there are a number of generalist repositories that can be used, e.g., Open Science Framework31,
figshare32, Zenodo33, GitHub34, Mendeley Data35.

24 https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/
25 https://www.scienceeurope.org/our-resources/practical-guide-to-the-international-alignment-of-research-data-management/
26 https://www.sfi.ie/funding/sfi-policies-and-guidance/open-research/
27 https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/opendoar/
28 https://www.coretrustseal.org/
29 https://www.coalition-s.org/technical-guidance_and_requirements/
30
https://www.scienceeurope.org/our-resources/practical-guide-to-the-international-alignment-of-research-datamanagement/
31 https://osf.io/
32 https://figshare.com/
33 https://zenodo.org/
34 https://github.com/
35 https://data.mendeley.com/

Your institutional librarian may be able to provide guidance about suitable data repositories.
CoreTrustSeal36 is another useful resource for browsing available research data repositories.
What are preprints?
Preprints are publications that are made openly available before peer-review and publication in ajournal. Preprints accelerate dissemination, increase transparency and reproducibility, allow you toestablish priority of discoveries and ideas and provides the opportunity to showcase recent
achievements.
SFI recognises pre-print articles (associated with a persistent identifier, e.g., DOI) as valuable research
outputs in application and evaluation processes. However, they cannot be used when confirming youreligibility for calls, i.e., when a particular call requires a minimum amount of publications to be eligible
to apply, those publications must be peer reviewed.
Does depositing a preprint make my publication compliant with SFI’s Open Access policy?
No. SFI encourages researchers to publish preprints however SFI’s Open Access Policy requires that
the Version of Record (VoR), or Authors Accepted Manuscript after peer-review must be made openlyavailable. A preprint would not fulfil this criterion.
Does my masters or PhD thesis have to be Open Access when I submit it to my institution’s library tocomply with SFI’s Open Access Policy?
No, only peer-reviewed publications must be immediately available from the date of publication (noembargo permitted), with a Creative Commons attribution licence (CC-BY) and a Rights Retention
Statement.
Do books, book chapters, or review articles have to be immediately available upon publication?
No. At present, only peer-reviewed research articles and peer-reviewed conference proceedings must
be made immediately open without embargo. SFI encourages that academic books, book chapters,
review articles, research data or other outputs that may arise from SFI funded research are made as
open as possible and as closed as necessary after publication.

SFI will update this FAQ document regularly.

36 https://www.coretrustseal.org/