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Open Access: REF Open Access Policy

This guide is intended to provide advice on open access to researchers

Open Access Requirements for the Research Excellence Framework (REF)

Open access is a requirement for REF eligibility, so if you have a journal article or conference paper accepted for publication you must deposit the accepted manuscript in Pure no later than three months after the date of acceptance. 

REF Open Access policy requirements 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025

The funding bodies introduced a policy for open access for journal submissions and conference contributions for REF 2021.

This policy and its requirements remain in place until the updated REF 2029 open access policy takes effect on 1 January 2026.

Requirements

  • This policy applies to journal articles and conference proceedings that have an ISSN.
  • The author accepted manuscript for all journal articles and conference proceedings should be deposited in Pure upon acceptance and no later than 3 months after that date.

Embargo: allowable embargo periods are:

  • for outputs submitted to main panels A and B: 12 months
  • for outputs submitted to main panels C and D: 24 months

Open Access Policy for REF 2029- Video Guide

Open Access Policy for REF 2029

 

The four UK higher education funding bodies have published the full Open Access Policy for REF 2029. 

Requirements

  • The policy will continue to apply to journal articles and conference proceedings that have an ISSN.
  • The author accepted manuscript for all journal articles and conference proceedings should be deposited in Pure upon acceptance.
  • There is no open access requirement for any other output types, (e,g. longform outputs, including monographs, book chapters and scholarly editions). 

Key Changes

  • Licensing: outputs should be licensed as openly as possible; the funding bodies strong preference is for licensing as CC-BY or other license formats meeting this standard of openness. However, licensing outputs at CC-BY-NC or CC-BY-ND (including CC-BY-NC-ND) or licenses meeting an equivalent standard of openness are also permitted.

Embargo: allowable embargo periods are:

  • for outputs submitted to main panels A and B: six months, reduced from 12 months
  • for outputs submitted to main panels C and D: 12 months, reduced from 24 months

Queen's Research Publications and Copyright Policy (Rights Retention)

  • Queen's Rights Retention policy enables Queen's staff to make their author accepted manuscripts open access upon publication (without any embargo). 
  • At Queen’s, upon acceptance for publication, each staff member with a responsibility for research agrees to grant Queen’s University Belfast a non‐exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide licence to make manuscripts of their scholarly articles publicly available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.
  • This policy makes it easy for all Queen's authors to meet the REF's open access requirements.

Implementation dates

  • The revised open access policy requirements for REF 2029 will apply from 01 January 2026.
  • The current REF Open Access policy requirements will continue to apply for all in-scope outputs up to this date.