Strategic Publishing Rules – a Manual for Researchers

At Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) attempts have been made to with different means motivate researchers to publish in ISI-ranked journals as an adjustment to the resource distribution- and evaluation system of Swedish research policy. This means that we have to stimulate ISI publishing at the same time as we want to meet the research funders’ requirements and make use of the advantages that open access to the research publications of BTH give in the form of increased exposure. The matter is now about finding ways that fulfill both goals. It is unambiguously so that a mere Open Access policy, whether it comes from one’s own higher education institution or from other national research actors, is not sufficient. Particularly not if the policy is in conflict with the established publishing culture among the researchers who not seldom regard the new rules as a counter direction to local and national recommendations to publish in ISI-ranked journals. This is why the Faculty Board at BTH has anchored, supplemented and increased their OA policy document with a descriptive and constructive manual for the individual researcher on how to act to fulfill different conditions and requirements concerning OA generally and research publishing in particular. A policy that does not only provide fundamental support but that also paves the way for administrative systems that give researchers practical support to publish OA and the possibility to choose publishing ways of high quality, favouring both the author and the organization