Library Research Support: Open Research: UK Research Councils Policy

The new UKRI Open Access Policy requires immediate open access for all peer-reviewed articles research articles (including commissioned reviews).

The policy requirements can be met either via:

• Route 1: Publishing the research article open access in a journal or publishing platform which makes the Version of Record immediately open access via its website (also known as "gold" open access).
• Route 2: Publishing the research article in a subscription journal and depositing the Author’s Accepted Manuscript (or Version of Record, where the publisher permits) in an institutional or subject repository so that it can be accessible at the time of final publication (also known as "green" open access).

Whichever route you opt for:

• There must be no post-publication embargo (i.e. no delay on access once the article is published)
• A Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence must be applied (the OGL licence can be applied to Crown Copyright works and a CC BY-ND may be permitted by the funder, on a case-by-case basis - find further details here)
• When submitting to a journal that is not fully open access you must include the following statement at the point of submission - both in the acknowledgements section of your paper and any cover letter/note accompanying the submission (see page 3 of the Policy):
  • ‘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 will no longer fund Article Processing Charges (APCs) in hybrid (not fully open access) journals, unless they are part of a transitional open access agreement.
• You must include a Data Access Statement, even where there is no data associated with the article (see Annex 1 of the Policy).
• Articles acknowledging MRC or BBSRC funding must also be deposited in Europe PubMed Central (see page 3 of the Policy)

Applying for a more-restrictive licence

Authors are advised to submit their request to the form at the link below at least 10 days before submitting their manuscript to a journal, to ensure they receive a response from UKRI in time to take any action required.

Form and Guidance: Apply for a no-derivatives exception

For additional information and guidance you may also find the following from UKRI useful:

• Making your research publications open access
• Acknowledging your funding
• The UKRI Open Access Policy
• Shaping our open access policy

The RCUK Open Access Policy came into force on April 1^st 2013. This policy applies to any peer-reviewed journal articles (not invited/commissioned reviews) or conference papers (in proceedings with ISSNs) that are submitted for publication on or after 1^st April 2013 and prior to 1st April 2022.

The policy requirements can be met either via:

• Publishing the research article open access in a journal or publishing platform which makes the Version of Record immediately open access via its website (also known as "gold" open access).
• Publishing the research article in a subscription journal and depositing the Author’s Accepted Manuscript (or Version of Record, where the publisher permits) in an institutional or subject repository so that it can be accessible at the time of final publication (also known as "green" open access).

The research paper must:

• Include a statement providing details of funding supporting the research (this should include the external grant code).
• Include a statement, if appropriate, on how the underpinning research data can be accessed.
• Be published in a journal that is compliant with RCUK’s Open Access Policy.

Compliant journals are:

• Fully open access journals that offer a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence
• Subscription journals that offer gold open access with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence
• Subscription journals which allow deposit in a repository, such as DRO, with maximum embargo periods for the Accepted Manuscript of:
  • 6 months (MRC)
  • 12 months (BBSRC, EPSRC, NERC, STFC)
  • 24 months (AHRC, ESRC)
• Sherpa Romeo can be used to check the open access policy for your journal.  If further clarification is needed you can either check the publisher's website directly or contact openaccess.publishing@durham.ac.uk for assistance.

For additional information and guidance you may also find the following useful:

• RCUK Policy on Open Access and Supporting Guidance
• RCUK Policy on Open Access Frequently Asked Questions

Eligible costs

We will receive a UKRI Open Access Block Award to support UKRI funded research articles from April 1st 2022. Please see our guide on paying for open access which provides further details on eligible costs chargeable to this funding stream, and to other sources of funding and other support available for authors at Durham University, or contact us at openaccess.publishing@durham.ac.uk.

Applying for funding

Conditions of use

This funding may be used where:

• An article is required to acknowledge funding from UKRI or any of its Research Councils
  AND...
• The required acknowledgement of that funding has been included in the article in line with the expectations of the funder.
  AND...
• One of the following statements is true:
  • The corresponding author on the research article is affiliated with the University of Durham, OR;
  • The Principal investigator (PI) of the acknowledged grant is affiliated with the University of Durham.

Email openaccess.publishing@durham.ac.uk and include all of the following information:

• The article title
• The journal title
• The publisher
• The article type (e.g. original research)
• The status of the article (submitted, accepted etc.)
• The date of submission
• The grant code(s) that will be acknowledged in the paper
• Confirmation that you are either the PI of the grant and/or the corresponding author (if you are not the corresponding author, provide details of who is)

Open Access Monographs, Book Chapters and Edited Collections

The new UKRI Open Access Policy applies to in-scope long-form publications that are published on or after 1 January 2024.

A footnote in the policy states that this is the case: Unless a contract has been signed between the author and the publisher before this date that prevents adherence to the policy. However, UKRI strongly encourages authors and publishers to make publications open access.

Routes to compliance

• It will be possible to comply with the Policy via either the green or the gold open access route: The final Version of Record or the Author’s Accepted Manuscript must be free to view and download via an online publication platform, publishers’ website, or institutional or subject repository within a maximum of 12 months of publication [See page 4]
• As with research articles, the preferred licence is the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) Licence.
• Other Creative Commons licences are permitted. 
• You may also use the Open Government Licence (OGL) for Crown Copyright outputs.

You may find it useful to be aware of the following specific pages of the Policy:

• Page 4 of the Policy provides details of some of the possible exemptions, and page 5 of the Policy provides additional details about long-form publications which may contain third-party copyright content.
• Definitions of the long-form output types that are in-scope can be found on page 7 of the Policy.

Funding

• In addition to the Block Grant for research articles, UKRI have said that funding will be provided to pay for associated charges with the open access publication of long-form outputs.

Publishers that offer open access options for monographs/books/book chapters

• You may find it helpful to explore the options offered by the publishers detailed on our webpages here.

As UKRI make more details about the implementation of this part of the policy available we will add to the information provided here. If you have any questions or concerns please email the Open Access Team. 

The Rights Retention Approach

"Rights Retention" is a new initiative from cOAlition-S funders, including the Wellcome Trust, UKRI and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, each of whom has published cOAlition-S aligned policies which include a rights retention requirement.

What is the 'Rights Retention Strategy'?

The key expectation on authors from funders is to make their research articles Open Access immediately on publication, without embargo, and under a clear open licence, usually a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. 

Rights retention supports the green (self-archiving) open access route (Route 2 in both the UKRI and Wellcome Trust Open Access policies), and aims to allow an author to publish in their journal of choice (even if that published Version of Record (VoR) remains behind a subscription paywall), whilst ensuring an author retains the right to share their Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) immediately upon publication, in line with the expectations of their funder.

It essentially takes the form of an author including a statement in all article manuscripts submitted for publication, notifying the publisher of their funding obligations and that they, as author, are retaining the right to share their accepted manuscript under those terms.

The intended outcome is that:

• Authors
  • Retain the rights to share and re-use their own AAM as they wish.
  • Are able to meet the open access requirements where these form any terms and conditions in their funding contract.
• Institutions
  • Can share the accepted manuscripts provided to them by authors immediately from their institutional open access repository.
  • Can provide clear and consistent guidance for authors on how to comply and how and when AAMs will be shared.
• Researchers
  • Gain immediate open access to a peer-reviewed version of research publications, which would otherwise be hidden behind a subscription paywall.
  • Through the use of standard open licencing can clearly see how they can, and cannot, re-use that published research.
• Publishers
  • Are clearly notified at the first point of submission of the funder's open access requirements that the author of the manuscript is obliged to meet.
• Funders
  • Can ensure the authors they fund have a mechanism for making research open access immediately upon publication which is not dependent upon an author's ability to pay for publishing.

What do researchers need to do?

This is advice is for research articles in scope of the Wellcome Trust Open Access policy, or research articles submitted after 1st April 2022 and in scope of the UKRI Open Access policy. 

Researchers are required to include a clear statement following the wording provided by their respective funder when submitting their manuscript for publication. This wording should be included in the funding acknowledgements section of the manuscript, and in any cover letter, email or submission system note accompanying the submission. 

Where an article acknowledges funding from both funders, the authors can choose either form of wording - it is not required that both statements are included.

Challenges we will face

We do not know how all publisher's will respond to the inclusion of this statement, and we are aware some publisher's may contact an author, at various stages of the submission/publication process, about this statement (whilst some publisher's have indicated they will accept its use and have no concerns with its inclusion).

Please contact openaccess.publishing@durham.ac.uk if you have any concerns about its use, or are able to share any response received by a publisher.

We have set out the advice currently provided by funders below: