Publishing & Public Access

The Smithsonian Institution and its employees create a range of formal publications and other content about the Institution and its research, collections, and programs in different formats and through various media. As part of its mission, the Smithsonian works to advance open science and increase access to scholarly content through various initiatives, including:

• Smithsonian Scholarly Press (scholarly monographs and reports)
• Smithsonian Research Data (research data repository)
• Smithsonian Research Online (bibliographic metadata and full-text repository)
• Smithsonian Open Access (images)

PUBLIC ACCESS 

The Smithsonian’s “Plan for Increased Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research” was created in response to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s 2013 memo and its updated guidance from August 2022. The plan applies to manuscripts in all major Smithsonian research areas – science, history, art, and culture – intended for publication as journal articles and book chapters. If an SI employee is the corresponding author of an article or chapter and receives a publishing agreement from a publisher, that employee should refer to SD 806, Publishing at the SI and by SI Employees, and the following tools and guidance.

SI employees who are corresponding authors and/or are asked to sign agreements for their work product are permitted to complete CLICK LICENSES – agreement to terms inside an online submission system. Authors must also attach “supplemental terms” to their manuscript (see below) and correctly identify their ownership type:

• U.S. Government = SI Federal employees
• Company/institution owned = Trust employees, SI Contractors, SI Interns, coauthors not affiliated with SI whose employers own their work
• Contributor/author owned = SI Fellows, coauthors not affiliated with SI who own their work

SI employees are asked to attach “supplemental terms” to manuscripts at submission to ensure contract terms that enable compliance with Public Access requirements. For Elsevier or Wiley, employees should attach the publisher-specific pre-negotiated addendum.

• Elsevier
• Wiley*
• All other publishers

* When submitting to Wiley, SI authors do not need to attach supplemental terms. Wiley will require corresponding authors to identify “ownership” then will either instruct the author to “sign” a click license in its online system or send a PDF of a publishing agreement that requires authorized signature(s). When a PDF of the publishing agreement is provided by Wiley, SI author must submit a Public Access Ticket in Service Portal.

When agreements (including those from Wiley) require REAL SIGNATURE, SI employees must complete a Public Access Ticket in Service Portal allowing for signature by the appropriate signing authority, but only if all of these apply:

• You are a Smithsonian employee.
• You received a publishing contract that requires a signature.
• Your manuscript will be published as a journal article or book chapter.
• The publisher is not offering a royalty or other monetary payment.

If not all apply, refer to this table to find the appropriate SI signatory: Signing Authority for Publishing Agreements (from SD 806).

If all apply, follow this link to Submit a Public Access Ticket or follow these steps:

1. Click on the “Public Access ticket” on SI’s Service Portal (https://smithsonianprod.servicenowservices.com/si?id=sc_category&catalog_id=3a30e81fdb808c10faac7c031f9619e2). If this link doesn’t work, go into “Service Portal” on telework.si.edu or Prism’s home page then search “public access.”
2. Complete all the fields that apply. (Leave fields blank if they are n/a.)
3. When prompted for co-authors, be sure to list all co-authors’ namesin order of authorship (including non-SI co-authors).
4. Attach the unsignedcontract (and any other documents the publisher gave you). To attach, click “Add attachments” at bottom of form.
5. If you have a clean copy of the “Accepted Manuscript” of your article/chapter (the author-revised manuscript after peer review but before publisher edits or page proofs), you may attach it as well.
6. Click “Submit”

DISCOUNTED GOLD OPEN ACCESS FEES

The Royal Society – Smithsonian Scholarly Press has entered into a one-year agreement with Royal Society Publishing for discounted article processing charges (i.e., a transformative agreement). Beginning November 1, 2022, current Smithsonian employees and fellows in good standing may be eligible for discounted fees for the following journals:

• Open access: Open Biology and Royal Society Open Science
• Hybrid/“Open Choice”: Biology Letters; Interface Focus; Journal of the Royal Society Interface; Notes and Records of the Royal Society; Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences; Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences; Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences; and Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

When submitting through Royal Society’s online submission system, the corresponding author will be required to provide their si.edu email, their Smithsonian mailing address, and a Smithsonian Ringgold ID. Click for more detail and publisher instructions for Royal Society’s open access journals and hybrid journals.

View the webcast (February 6, 2020): Overview of SD 806, and presentation PowerPoint.