Open Access and Open Data Policies and Statistics for UGC

Scott Edmunds made this Freedom of Information request to University Grants Committee Secretariat

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Dear University Grants Committee Secretariat,

With more and more government departments releasing their Public Sector Information outputs in the new Data.Gov.Hk repository, are there any policies or plans for UGC funded research outputs (i.e. publications and data) to be made available in a similar manner?

I appreciate your organisation attaches great importance to both the monitoring of on-going projects and the assessment of those that are completed. Can you tell me how much money is spent per year on disseminating your research outputs? Looking at your statistics page, in 2011-2012 your funded institutions published 16,594 papers, so how much did you spend on journal subscriptions and open access charges in the same period? If you do not have specific numbers, what is the most granular level you can give me of the individual library budgets?

Yours faithfully,

Scott Edmunds, PhD

University Grants Committee Secretariat

Dear Scott Edmunds,

Thank you for your email.

The Research Grants Council (RGC) is a non-statutory advisory council
operating under the aegis of the University Grants Committee (UGC)
The RGC encourages open access to publications resulting from research
funded by the RGC.  For those projects funded in 2013/14 and thereafter,
the following policy applies as a condition of the grant:

(a)        upon acceptance of an article for publication, the researcher
should check whether the journal already allows (i) full open access to
the publisher’s version, or (ii) the author's depositing a copy of the
article (either the publisher’s version or the manuscript of the final
accepted version after peer-review) in the institutional repository for
open access;
(b)        if both (a) (i) and (ii) are not allowed, the researcher should
request the journal to allow him/her to place some version (preferably the
publisher’s version, but failing that the final accepted version) in
his/her institutional repository for restricted access immediately upon
publication or after an embargo period of up to twelve months if required
by the journal; and
(c)        subject to the journal's agreement on (a) or (b), the
researcher should deposit a copy of the publication in his/her
institutional repository as early as possible but no later than six months
after publication or the embargo period, if any.

While the RGC does not claim copyright or other intellectual property
right of research output, the RGC recognizes the need to encourage local
academics to share research data.  The Principal Investigators (PIs)/
Project Coordinators (PCs) of projects approved in 2010/11 and thereafter
are required to release the completion reports to the public through the
RGC website.  If members of the public have keen interests in the approved
projects, they can approach the PIs/PCs direct for details of the
projects.

As the RGC does not have records of the amount spent for disseminating
research outputs, journal subscription or open access charges, we regret
to inform you that we are not able to provide the requested information on
these items.
Regards,
University Grants Committee Secretariat

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From:        Scott Edmunds <[FOI #17 email]>
To:        FOI requests at University Grants Committee Secretariat
<[University Grants Committee Secretariat request email]>,
Date:        2015/05/24 下午 10:36
Subject:        Freedom of Information request - Open Access and Open Data
Policies and Statistics for UGC

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Dear University Grants Committee Secretariat,

With more and more government departments releasing their Public Sector
Information outputs in the new Data.Gov.Hk repository, are there any
policies or plans for UGC funded research outputs (i.e. publications and
data) to be made available in a similar manner?

I appreciate your organisation attaches great importance to both the
monitoring of on-going projects and the assessment of those that are
completed. Can you tell me how much money is spent per year on
disseminating your research outputs? Looking at your statistics page, in
2011-2012 your funded institutions published 16,594 papers, so how much
did you spend on journal subscriptions and open access charges in the same
period? If you do not have specific numbers, what is the most granular
level you can give me of the individual library budgets?

Yours faithfully,

Scott Edmunds, PhD

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