Research Publishing, Excellence and Open, Next steps

Research publishing at University of Galway: policy and next steps 

Research publishing is evolving as funders, governments, and institutions place greater focus on openness, quality and responsible research assessment. In response, the University of Galway has adopted a new Research Publishing Policy that brings together research excellence and open dissemination in a single framework. 

Read the full policy: QA237 Research Publishing Policy

What the policy is aiming to do

The policy recognises research publications as a core institutional asset. It pairs the ambition to publish in leading journals, presses, and platforms with responsible open dissemination of outputs. It supports robust peer review, rigorous editorial standards, equitable access to knowledge, and responsible research assessment. 

Open publishing is understood as making research outputs available free of charge online, without subscription barriers, in ways that respect author rights and institutional intellectual property. 

The policy applies to staff and students and covers journal articles, conference papers, chapters, books, monographs, and reports, while recognising that artistic, creative and literary works may need different treatment. 

What this means for authors 

In practice, authors are expected to: 

• Choose reputable, domain-leading outlets by using recognised journals, conferences and presses and avoid outlets with deceptive or poor practices. 
• Make work openly available on acceptance by depositing at least the Author Accepted Manuscript, and where possible the Version of Record, in the University of Galway Research Repository. This repository-led route to open complements gold or diamond open access options and is supported by the Library. It also provides an open route when authors are forced to publish behind a paywall. 
• Retain sufficient rights to share by using rights-retention wording or similar approaches at submission so you do not sign away the ability to make the accepted manuscript openly available in the repository. 
• Use accurate affiliation and data statements by listing “University of Galway” as the primary affiliation for outputs and, where appropriate, include a clear statement on access to underlying data, software or materials. 
• Request an exception where necessary for legal, ethical, security or commercial reasons. Where it is necessary not to make a work openly available on acceptance, the policy provides a process for requesting a postponement for the shortest period necessary. 

Support and next steps 

The Library drives the policy to make high-quality, compliant research publishing as straightforward as possible. The Open Publishing service, Open Access Publishing Guide and related pages provide practical support with:

• choosing and combining routes to open 
• using the Research Repository and emerging CRIS-repository workflows 
• understanding rights retention and publishing agreements 
• making use of national read-and-publish agreements. 

We are currently developing new web content on research publishing to bring this guidance together in a clearer, task-focused way. As this work progresses, we will be in contact at school level to arrange meetings and discussions about what the policy means in different disciplines and how the Library can best support your publishing practices. 

Contact the Library

Read the full policy: QA237 Research Publishing Policy