Make your research outputs Open Access
How to publish Open Access papers
You can publish your paper as Open Access by:
- Self-archiving - deposit the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in Pure or other Open Access repository and/or
- Publish the paper in an Open Access or subscription journal which allows Open Access.
The University holds funding to publish papers that acknowledge UKRI or the British Heart Foundation in gold Open Access journals.
All Heriot-Watt University corresponding authors can take advantage of the Read and Publish agreements listed below to make their research articles Open Access.
Important update on Wiley Gold Open Access funding.
Co-authors should seek to make their papers Open Access by self-archiving the AAM in Pure.
Co-authors should seek to make their papers Open Access by self-archiving the AAM in Pure.
The University holds funding to pay article processing charges (APCs) for papers acknowledging UKRI and British Heart Foundation funding.
UKRI have allocated funds to research institutions in the form of a block grant. Funding for Open Access fees (APCs) are available to corresponding authors. British Heart Foundation funding is claimed retrospectively. There are also the Read and Publish deals for all corresponding authors, listed above.
To pay Gold Open Access fees in Open Access Journals, please contact open.access@hw.ac.uk before you submit to the journal to check if there is funding available. In some cases we will ask that you consider the Green Open Access route. Please complete and send this Request for Open Access publishing funding form to open.access@hw.ac.uk.
There is no central University funding to pay for APCs.
Read and Publish/Transformative Agreements
The University has agreements with the publishers listed below which enables all Heriot-Watt University affiliated corresponding authors to publish Open Access in selected journals.
Please check that the journal in which you wish to publish is included in the list of eligible journals on the Publisher's website before signing a publishing agreement. You should never have to generate an invoice when publishing under a Read and Publish agreement. There are no University funds to pay for Article Processing Charges in hybrid (subscription) journals.
Check that the type of article you wish to publish is included in the agreement. For example, data papers, book reviews or conference reports are normally not eligible.
Contact open.access@hw.ac.uk if you would like to check a specific journal. You can also use JISC’s Open Policy Finder to check whether a journal is covered by a Read and Publish agreement.
When publishing Open Access, please select the CC BY license. If you wish to select a different licence, contact open.access@hw.ac.uk to check this meets University or funder policies.
Use your Heriot-Watt University email address and include Heriot-Watt University as your main affiliation when submitting your paper and include all funders in your acknowledgements.
Research data supporting publications should be recorded in Pure and archived in compliance with your funder and University policies. See our Support pages for more information.