The finding announced today that SHERPA/FACT has an accuracy score of over 95% has been welcomed by repository and OA administrators and managers in UK universities. SHERPA/FACT is a tool for checking whether publishers’ policies provide for compliance with research funders’ open access requirements.
Greater efficiency in vital support role
Repository and OA administrators and managers work within universities on a wide range of functions to support open access requirements, including:
- Advising academic staff on the wider benefits of open access to research;
- Helping to build streamlined workflows for open access and research administration within their institution;
- Approving requests for gold open access, and for payment of the associated article publishing charges (APCs);
- Processing researchers’ deposits of content onto repositories, supporting academics by ensuring that the descriptions of their articles are correct and complete;
- Advising researchers on the open access requirements of their funders, helping them to comply as straightforwardly as possible.
SHERPA/FACT’s proven reliability means that repository and OA administrators and managers will be able to devote more time to these important tasks, time that would otherwise be spent trying to track down and interpret publishers’ policies, and assessing whether or not they offer an open access route that is consistent with a given funder’s mandate.
Trust in valued shared service
The professional body for repository managers, the United Kingdom Council of Research Repositories (UKCoRR), was quick to welcome the findings.
As well as highlighting its support on its own web site, its Chair, Yvonne Budden (University of Warwick) said “It’s good to know that we can rely on this valuable shared service. The fact that we have such a reliable service provided centrally means that we can achieve greater efficiency and improved support much more cost effectively than would have been possible if individual institutions had tried to solve this separately.”