Under the Open Access Policy released in 2019, the University is committed to achieving equality of access to information and making our research findings freely available to the general public.

“Access and Opportunity for All”

IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) slogan for the UN 2030 Agenda

Open Access means that research results such as articles made available on the internet so that anyone can read them freely without financial, technical, or legal barriers. Open Access enables equal access to information and makes a positive contribution to wider society by sharing and utilizing research findings.

Open Access is being promoted as a national policy, and academic findings from public research grants (such as KAKENHI, JST and AMED) are also required to be openly accessible.

Making your research paper available to the global public offers the following benefits.

For clinical practitioners, it provides easy access to the latest research findings/evidence, which can be immediately applied to improve medical care.
For students, it facilitates the review of prior research in their studies and research. Digital natives, in particular, tend to demand immediacy, and ease of access will encourage use of these services.

There are two ways to make your paper available to the public.

Making your paper available to everyone at no cost in your institutional or university repository.

Open Access publishing on the websites of publishers or academic societies (publishers).

The University's Open Access Policy aims to establish Green Open Access by registering research results in the SLIU Repository.

Your research results can be made available to the public through the University of St. Luke's International University Academic Resources Repository (SLIU Repository).

Research findings registered in the SLIU Repository will continue to be stored and made available to the public even after the relevant faculty member has retired or left the university. The applicable rules are stipulated by the St. Luke's International University Academic Resources Repository Bylaws.

Copyright is not transferred to the University, but is retained by the copyright holder (typically the author or publisher) under Article 13 of the St. Luke's International University Academic Resources Repository Bylaws.

There are two paths to public release of research reports.

For research findings that are eligible for Open Access under the university's Open Access policy, the Center for Academic Resources will periodically (usually annually) contact applicable faculty/staff to request applications for registration, based on Researchmap data. The timing and method will be explained by the repository manager.

Faculty and staff members of the university who wish to make their research findings available via Open Access may apply at any time.

Faculty members are required to obtain consent from all co-authors to make the publication publicly available before applying to the Center for Academic Resources.

The faculty/staff member (the applicant) should first (1) obtain consent from all co-authors to make the publication publicly available and then (2) apply to the Center for Academic Resources.

If the copyright holder is an author and the paper is a co-authored paper, the applicant must obtain the consent of all co-authors for making the publication available to the public in the repository. Apply via the St. Luke's International University Academic Resources Repository Registration Authorization Form.
If the copyright has been transferred to the publisher, it is not mandatory to confirm the consent of the co-authors, but it is preferable to obtain the consent of the corresponding author.

● Where the author's version can be made public,
the applicant should submit the appropriate manuscript to the repository manager.
The author's version here refers to all versions from the first draft when the manuscript is submitted to the journal (i.e., the manuscript as it appears prior to peer review) (A) through to the final author's version (after the peer review at the point where the manuscript is accepted) (B). The author's version normally has not been subjected to final proofreading or layout adjustment by the publisher.

● Where the publisher's version can be made public,
the applicant should submit the publisher's version to the repository manager, or the repository manager should obtain it from the publisher.

Research results should be submitted as soon as possible to ensure integrity of the materials. If the publisher has set an embargo period, the repository manager will put a hold on making the research results publicly available until a specific date.
It is recommended that research results be submitted in electronic format, such as PDF, Microsoft Word, etc. However, paper copies of original or photocopied research results may also be submitted.

Research results cannot be made public in the repository if the permission of the publisher or co-author cannot be obtained; if the results are already publicly available in an Open Access journal and you wish to refrain from making another version public; if the publication contains content that infringes on the rights of others; or in the event of research misconduct such as data falsification.

If the Center for Academic Resources confirms that the publisher does not grant permission to make the paper public in the repository, the Center for Academic Resources will work on your behalf to prevent the publication from entering the public domain. In addition to the above, if faculty members judge that it is necessary to keep the publication out of the public domain, the faculty members may file a request for the publication to remain unavailable along with their reasoning.

The procedure to keep the publication out of the public domain is as follows.

After consultation with the Academic Resources Committee and review by the Committee, the decision will be made by the Management Committee of the Center for Academic Resources, and then the Center will undertake the procedures to keep the publication out of the public domain.

Submit an Application Form for Academic Resources Unavailable to the Public in Repository (download from the Center for Academic Resources website on the university intranet). After a review by the Academic Resources Committee and decision by the Management Committee of the Center for Academic Resources, the Center will undertake the procedures to keep the publication out of the public domain.

Open Access journals are electronic journals in which publishers make their articles available on an Open Access basis.

In Open Access journals, publication costs such as peer review and editing fees are covered by the APC (Article Processing Charge) paid by the author, as opposed to the standard approach where these costs are covered by subscription fees paid by readers.

There are various types of Open Access by commercial publishers, including those that are regular subscription journals but allow authors to choose to pay APCs for Open Access (hybrid journals), and those that become Open Access after a certain embargo period after publication.

Once you have found the journal you want to submit your paper to, check the following.