REF and Funder Open Access Policies

This section of the policy applies to:

• Long form publications including
  • Academic monographs
  • Book chapters
  • Edited collections
  • Trade books (where they are the sole output of the research)
• UKRI Funded researchers signing a contract with a publisher on or after 1 January 2024.

Requirements:

• Acknowledge the source of funding i.e., funder and grant number
• Manuscripts must be published/deposited under a Creative Commons license, with a CC BY licence preferred.
• An embargo period up to 12 months is permitted for green route OA  where the accepted manuscript is deposited into a repository.
• If applicable, include a data accessibility statement signposting where/how a researcher can access the underlying data (see Research Data Management for advice on publishing data – especially concerning confidentiality).

Exceptions:

• Exceptions may be made on request if the only publication option within a research field is non-compliant with this policy: email UKRI before submission at openresearch@ukri.org
• Where a monograph, book chapter or edited collection is the outcome of a UKRI Training Grant published outside of the grant’s lifetime.

For full policy details, and guidance on how to comply, see UKRI’s page ‘Making your research publications open access.’

Routes to compliance:

There are two routes to compliance with the policy:

• Publish a fully open access monograph that is immediately open access (the gold route).
• Publish in a traditionally published long form publication and make the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) openly available on publication with no more than a 12 month embargo (the green route).  When using this route it must be clear that the AAM is not the published version.

Funding:

• UKRI has introduced a dedicated fund to support open access costs for long-form publications within scope of the policy. This fund can be used towards costs to make the Version of Record immediately open access with a Creative Commons licence.  It is not available for delayed open access of the Version of Record or self-archiving of the Author’s Accepted Manuscript.
• The open access fund for monographs, book chapters and edited collections has a two-stage application process.
  • Stage 1: the research organisation registers the output(s) with UKRI
  • Stage 2: the research organisation provides confirmation of publication to UKRI to enable the release of funds –
  • Applications must be completed centrally by the Open Access team. Please contact openaccess@uwtsd.ac.uk to make an application.  The Open Access team will need:
    • Amount requested
    • Total cost (if different)
    • Publication type (e.g. monograph)
    • Publisher
    • Title of the work
    • Author’s name(s)
    • Author’s ORCID(s)
    • Dates of applicable UKRI funding grant(s)
    • Estimated publication date

Find out more about UKRI open access funding. 

A note on images and third person copyright:

UKRI’s licensing requirements do not apply to any materials included within a long-form output that are provided by third-party copyright holders. Academic books published under a CC BY, or other creative commons licence may include third-party materials (such as images, photographs, diagrams or maps) which are subject to a more restrictive licence. UKRI considers this approach compliant with its policy.

UKRI recognises that there may be some instances where permissions for reuse in an open access book cannot be obtained for all third-party images or other materials. Therefore, an exception to the policy may be applied when reuse permissions for third-party materials cannot be obtained and there is no suitable alternative option available to enable open access publication.

Further guidance:

• Making your monograph, book chapter or edited collection open access 
• UKRI’s new Open Access policy for longform publications: guidance webinar