Newcastle University initially took a light touch approach to open access advocacy through web pages and minimal staffing. The Finch Report and RCUK policy changes in 2012-2013 led to increased challenges, with senior academics unhappy about recommendations and uncertain about gold and green open access. A new advocacy campaign targeted faculty committees to explain policies and address concerns. This established the library as a trusted partner. While a tri-faculty funding process was difficult, advocacy built support for a unified university fund. Current efforts focus on strategic briefings and monitoring, with successes in increasing green deposits after sessions. Ongoing work aims to build capacity and address compliance.

1. OA Communication & Advocacy at
Newcastle
Pathways to OA Workshop,
20 March, 2015
Jill Taylor-Roe,
Deputy University Librarian

2. Newcastle University
• Civic University
• Research Intensive
• 23864 students
• 5257 staff
• 3 Faculty structure:
Medical Sciences
• Science, Agriculture and Engineering
(SAgE)
• Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS)

3. Initial Experience re OA
• Wellcome OA grant since 2006
• Pilot Central OA fund 2009- 2012
• Light touch advocacy –
• publicity via Faculty Research Strategy Committees
• Application forms on web pages
• Minimal staffing:
• Deputy led advocacy, Library assistant to process
gold OA, Repository managed by Tech Services
Staff

4. Game Changers
• Finch Report, 2012
• RCUK OA policy, 2013

5. Issues and Challenges!
• Senior academics unhappy with Finch recommendations
• Perception that Librarians pushed for gold OA - “It’s all your
fault!”
• Fears that gold OA takes funding away from core research
• Anxiety in HASS subjects about “pay to say” culture
• Uncertainty about what gold and green OA really mean
• Sceptical about Creative Commons licences
• Faculty-specific approach to allocating RCUK funds

6. A new Advocacy campaign was needed
Target audiences: Faculty Research
Committees, School Research Groups, PGR and
Post Doc Training Programmes
Key Messages:
• Explain RCUK OA policy
• Define green and gold OA
• Explain different types of CC licences
• Outline Library Support and how to access it
PLUS: LISTEN to academic concerns

7. Further Actions/Activities
• Set up Open Access Steering Group, jointly led
by Library and Research Office
• Reports to University Research Committee
• Set up library research support team, bringing
together gold and green OA support
• Recruited OA Advocacy Officer plus Library
Assistant support for gold and green OA
• Revamped OA web pages and developed FAQ

8. Phase 1 Achievements
• Established library as non-judgemental, trusted
agent to “sort it all out”
• Persuaded faculties to move to a single University
RCUK Fund with same conditions for access
• Effective partnership between Library and Research
Office

9. The way we were: tri-
faculty workflow for
RCUK OA!

10. Next challenge!

11. Current Round of OA Advocacy: Post 2014
REF requirements
Strategic Advocacy
• PVC Research OA briefing
• OA video
• OA key facts postcard
• Library-led briefings at school/institute
• summary reports to Faculty Research Committees
and OA Steering Group re issues raised, solutions
offered etc.
• “temperature check” before and after briefings

12. Successes so far
• Pushing at an open door – schools now much
more welcoming of advocacy sessions
• Evidence of post-briefing follow up – increase
in green deposits
Issues and Challenges
• Building robust staffing capacity
• Addressing Compliance-monitoring agenda

13. Summary Points
• Advocacy programme has been a slow burn
• Tri-faculty approach re RCUK grant was challenging to
manage – not readily scaleable
• Subtle advocacy/persuasion finally led to unified approach,
first come first served
• Important to listen to academic concerns – build bridges
• Library now assumed to own the OA agenda

14. Any Questions?
• Jill Taylor-Roe@ncl.ac.uk
• Library OA webpages:
• http://www.ncl.ac.uk/openaccess/

15. Additional Info: post 2014- Ref Guide and
deposit instructions

17. Job done!