Open Access 4: RGC Reporting

RGC Reporting

Research Output Reporting and CityU Scholars

In Hong Kong, universities funded by UGC (University Grants Committee) are required to submit data covering general, staff, student, finance, research and knowledge transfer information in the Common Data Collection (CDC) Exercise every year. For "research", data for research outputs are reported to RGC (Research Grants Council) according to RGC's classification of research output categories. The same classification has been adopted in CityU Scholars to support the reporting needs.

OA Information Reporting

As part of the RGC Open Access Plan, starting from year 2022, universities are required to indicate in their CDC reports the open access arrangement of their UGC-funded research outputs*, e.g. published under a Transformative Agreement, published with an Article Processing Charge, open access but with embargo period, etc. For CityU colleagues who need to cross check the OA status of publications to be reported, the following guide will help.

*Only applicable for RGC-funded Type 21 and 22 academic research (refereed) outputs (Learn more about RGC research output categories)

Checking Open Access status (click here for a printable copy):

The following part aims to provide you with information you need to be aware of when checking the open access status of academic journal articles.

Characteristics of a genuine open access publication:

• Able to access its full-text content outside CityU network
  • CityU members are entitled to access many full-text articles with CityU Library's subscription. However, being able to open and read the full-text content through University network does not necessarily mean that the articles are open access. A genuine open access publication should be accessible even without any CityU authentication. 
    
    Refer to the publisher's banner to see if you are in CityU network environment.


• Usually has an open access icon / label
  • Most open access articles will have an open access icon / label associated with them. Try to look out for them in article overview pages / full-text files (e.g. under article's title, near full-text button). 
    


• Usually with a Creative Commons license, or other licenses that convey its open access arrangement
  • An open access article often utilizes a Creative Commons License to indicate author's permission of allowing others to copy, distribute, and make some uses of his work. Other than Creative Commons licenses, authors can also use other publishing licenses to convey the copyright management and open access arrangement.
    

Steps on checking open access status:

1. Prepare a device that is NOT connected to CityU network (e.g. cell phones with external internet service providers) and use this non-CityU connected device to conduct the checking.
    
2. Make sure you haven’t signed in with any personal / institutional accounts.
   
3. Locate article’s URL or DOI via CityU Scholars.
   
4. Access the URL or DOI and find the full-text button in the article page; check and see if you can open the full-text content.
   
5. Check and see if there is an open access label, a Creative Commons license, or other terms of use for open access.
   

If you can access the full-text content without using CityU network, and the work itself contains an open access label and/or an open access license (e.g. Creative Commons license), then it is probably an open access publication.