Over 50 % of the Reported Publications 2019 of the University of Turku Openly Available
The amount of publications authored by University of Turku-affiliated researchers and reported in the yearly publication data collection of the Ministry of Education increased again in 2019. The number exceeded 5900, when the year before it was nearly 5700. The amount of openly available publications kept increasing as well. Especially the number of peer-reviewed publications rose from 2018.
Openness increases with the collaboration of researchers and the library
Figure 1. The reported University of Turku publications from 2013 to 2019.
Striving to make the reporting task of the researchers as light as possible, the library imported the information of nearly half of all the 2019 publications with regular database searches. The searches were conducted in the international reference databases Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed, as well as the domestic databases Melinda, Medic, and Selma. About one tenth of the publications were submitted to the library by researchers with the library’s electronic form.
The overall openness of the reported publications increased. In overall openness, the number rose from 48 % in 2018 to 52 % in 2019. Nearly one third of all peer-reviewed publications were published in open access publication channels. One tenth of them were published in hybrid publication channels. In hybrid channels, most of the content is available only by subscription, but direct open access is available for authors for an article processing charge payment. Especially the number of publications issued in open access channels rose from the year before. About 15 % of the peer-reviewed publications were openly accessible through self-archiving in the University’s Current Research Information System UTUCRIS. Without self-archiving, they would have stayed behind the publisher’s paywall.
Figure 2. The openness of peer-reviewed publications from 2017 to 2019.
The significance of self-archiving increases
The new funding model for higher education institutions comes effect in 2021. It rewards researchers who self-archive their publications in institutional or field-specific repositories with a special incentive coefficient of 1,2. Self-archiving is also known as green open access. The possible embargo period, often required by the publisher, does not effect the coefficient, which is given to all publications from the reporting year that are reported as self-archived.
In accordance with the publication policy of the University of Turku, the library strives to self-archive the final peer-reviewed, accepted manuscript (also often called final draft or post-print) in UTUCRIS for all reported scientific publications whenever the publisher’s conditions allow it. All the researcher has to do is submit the manuscript to the library, which in its turn checks the publisher’s permission to self-archiving. After this, library will open the manuscript with the publication information in UTUCRIS when the eventual embargo expires.
The findability and accessibility of self-archived publications will still improve in future. The library is currently preparing the integration of the UTUCRIS system and UTUPub, the institutional publication repository of the University of Turku. After the integration, the self-archived publications will become permanently available in UTUPub.
Check and report your publication information year round
The library files information of new publications imported from reference databases in UTUCRIS on a daily basis. A good practice for researchers is, therefore, to check regularly if their new publication from the reporting year has already been filed in UTUCRIS. The check is quickly done in the search window on the main page in the UTUCRIS portal with the title of the publication.
Part of the publications, especially those issued in Finnish publication channels, are not indexed in the reference databases used by the library. When the publication becomes available online or in print, the researcher can submit the information of the lacking publication for validation manually in UTUCRIS, or alternatively, using the library’s simple e-form. The e-form also contains a mandatory field for the peer-reviewed or otherwise final manuscript in Word or PDF format. If the manuscript is not available, e.g. the scanned title page of the book or journal can be used instead.
More information:
The library’s UTUCRIS Guide
The library’s Open Access Guide
