Open Research Online

This is a brief reminder of why it is a good idea to deposit the full text of your items into ORO.

Most of all it will enable interested parties to gain access to your research more easily. This is especially true if we are able to make the text downloadable. The ‘accepted manuscript’ (aka ‘postprint’) is the version most likely to achieve this. This is the final post-peer-review version that you send to the publisher. We can convert from Word to PDF if necessary.

Please note we cannot accept a preprint (pre-peer-review) version.

Also, we check publishers’ copyright rules before making text downloadable and err on the side of caution – we can also set embargo periods – so please don’t let uncertainty over permissions put you off.

Even if we cannot make the text downloadable, having it stored in ORO offers benefits:

•    When a request for a copy of the text comes in via ORO you will have the option to click to ‘Accept the request’ within the email – ORO then sends a copy to the enquirer, saving you time and effort.

•    It also helps to preserve your work – offering a safe back-up in case your copy is lost or corrupted.

•    ORO will be the source of the OU’s REF submissions, so depositing relevant items now will make us better prepared.

We are happy to add the full text to items retrospectively – please email to lib-ORO-team with the item title or ORO item number.
When you email a text in response to an enquirer, please copy us in and we can then upload it into ORO.

For those of you who have heard me speaking about ORO, you will perhaps have the impression that ORO only takes peer-reviewed published research. However, in response to the realisation that OU faculty members disseminate their research in so many more ways than that, as well as the recognition by HEFCE of so-called “grey literature”, I’ve decided to firm up ORO’s policies and guidelines on this.

ORO’s opening help page, which explains what the repository’s coverage is, will now tell you the following:

“Open Research Online is an Open Access repository of the Open University’s peer-reviewed and published research, as well as other research output types which meet the “Frascati” definition of research.”

Some of you (particularly those involved heavily in the last RAE, or those already au fait with the ins and outs of the REF) will already know and understand what the “Frascati” definition of research is. For those who don’t, we’ve added an FAQ to the ORO help pages.

Alongside this, we’ve also made it clearer what item types can be deposited in ORO; the existing FAQ has been expanded.

Beyond this, if you (and by “you” I mean OU academics depositing in ORO) are still unclear whether a particular research output type can be deposited in ORO, you should direct your query to the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research & Enterprise), Professor Brigid Heywood.

As always, please do post your thoughts and comments in response to this…