UKRI's open access policy applies to peer-reviewed research articles submitted for publication from 1 April 2022 (includes reviews and conference papers).
1. UKRI requires immediate open access for peer-reviewed research articles.
2. The open access version of the research article must be published with a CC BY 4.0 licence.
3. All research articles must acknowledge UKRI funding and include a Data Access Statement, even where there are no data associated with the article.
Route 1: Publish in a fully open access journal or publishing platform which makes the Version of Record (VoR) immediately open access upon publication.
This includes journals that are part of a Read and Publish deal available via Queen’s.
Route 2: Publish the research article in a subscription journal and deposit the Author’s Accepted Manuscript (or Version of Record, where the publisher permits) in an institutional or subject repository at the time of final publication.
This version must be made immediately open access upon publication. A publisher requested delay or ‘embargo period’ is not permitted.
For the article to be published under Route 2, submissions must include the following text in the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript and any cover letter/note accompanying the submission:
‘For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising’.
UKRI requires in-scope research articles to include a Data Access Statement, even where there are no data associated with the article or the data are inaccessible.
The data access statement informs readers where the underlying research materials associated with a paper are available, and how the research materials can be accessed. The statement can include links to the dataset, where applicable and appropriate.
For more information on data access statements, please visit the Research Data Management LibGuide.
UKRI has given the University a block grant to support the cost of gold open access research articles. Please note that this grant can only be used for fully open access journals. UKRI no longer permit block grant funds to be used for non-open access publication fees, such as page and colour charges.
CC BY exception - applying for a licence exception for research articles.
1. The UKRI open access policy requires all in scope research articles to be published under a CC BY licence. However, as an exception a Creative Commons No-Derivatives licence (CC BY-ND) may be permitted. This will be managed via a process whereby researchers apply to their funder for an exception. The process will involve submitting an exception request via email. Exceptions should be sought prior to publication.
2. An Open Government Licence (OGL) can be used when a research article is subject to Crown Copyright
Non-open access publication charges
UKRI will no longer permit block grant funds to be used for other charges associated with publication, including page and colour charges, and non-open access publication charges or fees.
MRC & BBSRC funded articles:
For either open access route, biomedical research articles that acknowledge MRC or BBSRC funding are required to be archived in Europe PubMed Central, in accordance with MRC’s Additional Terms and Conditions and BBSRC’s Safeguarding Good Research Policy.
The Journal Checker Tool (JCT) is provided by cOAlition S to authors to support them in finding compliant “routes” through which to publish their articles. The tool allows an author to enter the name of a funder, an institution and the journal to which they plan to submit an article, and checks if this combination of funder, institution and journal offers any route to compliance.
