The RCUK Open Access Block Grant to Oxford is available and easy to apply for. The University Research Committee recently agreed to simplify the application process; sign-off from the Head of Department is no longer necessary.

Oxford staff and students can apply for funds to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) or article-related charges for papers submitted for publication on/after 1st April 2013,

• If they do not have such funding on the relevant RCUK program, project, fellowship or student grant from RCUK awarded prior to 1 April 2013

Or

• If they hold a new RCUK award commencing on or after 1 April 2013

For a brief summary of the requirements set by each of the Research Councils, please see http://openaccess.ox.ac.uk/sponsor-requirements/

Questions can be posted via http://openaccess.ox.ac.uk/home-2/contact-us/

RCUK will in summer 2014 audit compliance with its policy which requires that for peer-reviewed papers submitted for publication after 1st April 2013 which are based in whole or part on RCUK-funded research, authors must

1. Make their paper Open Access either via the payment of an APC or by placing the author accepted manuscript in a recognised subject-based or institutional repository (such as the Oxford Research Archive)
2. Acknowledge the source of funding that supported the research i.e. funder and grant number where applicable.
3. If applicable, include a statement on how the underlying research materials such as data, samples or models, can be accessed.