BRAD and BURA

 BRAD and BURA are two of the University's key research information systems, managed by Open Research and Rights, Library Services.

BRAD - Brunel Research Database

BRAD is the University’s internal research information platform, which aims to provide a comprehensive record of publications, other research outputs and activity by our research staff. 

If you are a member of academic staff with research responsibilities, you will need to use BRAD to manage your University web profile, generate an academic CV,  and create or import records of research activities, publications and other research outputs. 

You will also use BRAD to upload new manuscripts on acceptance for publication in line with the University's Open Access Mandate and national open research policy and funder requirements. Full text publications and metadata uploaded to BRAD are archived in BURA, our institutional open access repository.  BRAD is also integrated with a wide range of data sources, which allows automated harvesting of some publication metadata including some well-known citation databases and our research data repository, BrunelFigshare.

BRAD is also used to support the University's submission to the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) national assessment of research quality.  It helps the University central services, Colleges and research centres monitor and report on our research outputs and open access compliance on an ongoing basis, both internally within the University, and externally to funders and sector bodies, as required. 

It is therefore vital to keep your BRAD profile up-to-date, as required in the University's Open Access Mandate, by depositing all peer-reviewed manuscripts for journal articles and conference papers immediately on final acceptance for publication, and to link your ORCiD record to your BRAD profile. This will help you keep your research compliant with REF open access policy and eligible for submission to the next REF assessment exercise.   

BURA - Brunel University Research Archive

BURA is the University's institutional repository, which aims to increase the visibility and impact of our research by making full text manuscripts of peer-reviewed research publications and theses available to anyone, anywhere in the world.  Wherever possible, the full text of research articles is made freely available online, subject to copyright permissions and publisher policy. 

Library Services offers a mediated deposit service to Brunel researchers who first upload their accepted manuscripts to their account in BRAD immediately on acceptance.  For staff who do not have BRAD accounts, who but are uploaded through BRAD by research staff authors.  For every article, the Open Research and Rights team in Library Services checks the rights and publication licence, any required embargo periods and version status before releasing the output metadata and full text in BURA. Doctoral theses are also archived in BURA, however a separate process applies.  

While full text outputs contained within BURA are open access, copyright permissions and terms of use can vary by item.  Some publications may be subject to publisher embargo or reuse restrictions.  As these can create barriers to access and reuse, and can therefore limit citations and research impact, the recommended reuse licence for manuscripts and publications uploaded to BURA is a Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) wherever possible. This can be achieved through Author Rights Retention applied on submission or 

This is also in line with UK REF and funder requirements to ensure the widest possible access to research,  supporting innovation and further research. Authors may need to take steps to ensure they retain sufficient rights to archive manuscripts at the time of submission for publication, as this cannot normally be done post-submission. For advice on how to retain author rights, contact Open Access. 

Getting started with BRAD

New staff on academic research or research only contracts must currently register for access to BRAD when their Brunel network username and password has been assigned.  

Please email BRAD with your job title, department and staff/payroll ID number. An account will then be be set up for you, and the team will help you get started with advice on how to link your profile to your personal researcher identifiers like ORCiD, import your publications records and make them visible on your web profile. 

As BRAD is used to manage information related to research staff subject to the Open Access Mandate, we are currently unable to grant accounts to doctoral researchers and students. Accounts may be granted on request to other staff groups in very limited circumstances. Administrative access may also be given to research managers and administrators with formal responsibility for managing research information records. If you a believe you need an account, contact BRAD for further advice. 

For help with user accounts, and using BRAD see the BRAD LibGuide and How do I deposit in BRAD? or contact brad@brunel.ac.uk.