Open access policy

Introduction

Prostate Cancer UK invests in the most innovative research to create a step change in our knowledge of prostate cancer and the way it is diagnosed and treated. However, in order to maximise the impact and reach of the research we fund, findings must be freely available to our supporters and to the global research community through open access publication. 

Ultimately, we want to see the research we fund benefiting men with, or at high risk of, prostate cancer (and their families), and we don’t wish for publication to become a barrier to realising this impact.

Open access publication

There are two routes for open access, known as the ‘Gold route’ and the ‘Green route’. The Gold route involves payment of a fee to the publishing journal which makes the full text freely available to readers immediately after publication. The Green route does not incur a fee to the journal, but instead requires the author to deposit a copy of the full text in an open access repository after an embargo period (usually after a period of six months). 

Once the results have been published (or after any stipulated embargo periods), researchers are encouraged to make their results accessible and freely available by taking advantage of online open publishing platforms and repositories. This includes the dissemination of any negative or confirmatory results. To check the self-archiving policies of different journals please visit the SHERPA/RoMEO website. 

Our policy

Prostate Cancer UK expects all grant holders to publish the main output of their research as peer-reviewed research articles, and we strongly support the unrestricted access of these papers, and the accompanying data, through open access. 

We expect our funded researchers to, at the very least, publish via the Green open access route, with an embargo period of no longer than six months. However, we strongly encourage publishing via the Gold open access route wherever possible, to maximise the reach and impact of the research findings. 

To support open access publication, we offer additional funding for Gold route open access publication for papers resulting from Prostate Cancer UK funded research. For a list of journals that are fully open access, please visit the Directory of Open Access Journals

Electronic copies of any research papers accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, supported wholly or in part by Prostate Cancer UK funding, must be made available through PubMed Central (PMC) as soon as possible and no later than 6 months after publication. 

Any relevant data and materials must also be made freely available to other researchers upon request (subject to any ethics, approvals and Intellectual Property consideration).

Acknowledgement Statement

In all outputs arising from Prostate Cancer UK funded work researchers must acknowledge our financial support in the following format: 

“This work was supported by Prostate Cancer UK through a [Award Type] ([GRANT REFERENCE]).” 

For work supported by multiple Prostate Cancer UK grants, all relevant grant references should be listed. 

We will let you know if you need to use a bespoke acknowledgement statement for your grant.  

If you have any questions about our open access policy, please email us at [email protected]