Library Research Support: Open Research: UKRI Open Access 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

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. Please note that an invoice must not be raised until the Open Access Team confirms that funds are committed for you - unless you have other means to make the payment yourself. 

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 (who is acknowledging the Research Council funding) 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

Open Access Long-Form Publications

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

Routes to compliance

• 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.  If complying by depositing your accepted manuscript into DRO, this can be done with a maximum embargo period of 12 months (from 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.

Funding

From January 2024 approximately £3.5 million will be dedicated to supporting open access for long-form outputs via a separate ring-fenced fund. The fund will be centrally held by UKRI, and research organisations will apply to UKRI to access it. 

Applications for funds are to be made on the behalf of individual authors by the University and the application process will consist of two stages: 

• At Stage 1, the research organisation registers the output(s) with UKRI for funding and this will be done by the Library's Open Research team. UKRI will confirm if a publication is eligible for funding after a stage 1 submission. The application system is open now. 
• At Stage 2, the research organisation provides final confirmation of compliant open access publication to allow UKRI to release funds 

Maximum funding limits

UKRI has set maximum limits to what they will contribute towards the cost of publishing an individual output open access. In a number of cases, the funding offered will not cover the cost of the Book Processing Charge (BPC) or Chapter Processing Charge. Where the fee charged by the publisher exceeds the contribution that UKRI will make, please contact us for guidance. Please use the form to detail your request.

• £10,000 (including VAT) for BPCs for entire monographs and edited collections
• £1,000 (including VAT) for book chapter processing charges

UKRI will also make a contribution towards non-BPC funding models and we would ask authors to still get in touch with us if publishing a long-form output that they are not being charged a fee for directly. 

Additional information from UKRI on funding can be found here. 

Supporting third-party material costs 
UKRI allows authors to request costs for third party materials in research grant applications and this is the usual way that UKRI funding supports this activity. However, it will be permitted to claim up to £2,000 via the fund. Importantly, the entire funding application for an output must still remain within the above maximum limits. If you would like to find out more about this, please contact us. 
 

Seven-year threshold

UKRI has introduced a seven-year threshold. This means that if a monograph, book chapter, or edited collection is published seven or more years after the formal end of a UKRI funded project, then it will no longer be eligible for support via UKRI’s fund, and they would also not expect the publication to be open access. UKRI has said that will be some flexibility to accommodate extenuating circumstances.   

Exemptions

UKRI states that these should only need to be used rarely. Authors are expected to seek to publish open access wherever possible, prior to using an exemption. It is not expected that authors will need to apply to UKRI for exemptions to the policy but it is expected that the institution will need to collect data and notify UKRI of their use. Exemptions (in brief) are:

• where the only appropriate publisher is unable to offer an open access option that complies with UKRI’s policy
• reuse permissions for third-party materials cannot be obtained and there is no suitable alternative to enable open access publication

Further guidance on exemptions is provided in Annex 3 of the UKRI open access policy.

Authors will not need to apply to be exempt from the policy but should contact the Library for guidance. 

UKRI has stated that they will be introducing a notification process for authors and their organisations as they wish to be informed when and why an exemption is being used. 
 

Blanket exemptions (available to all without needing to ensure steps in Annex 3 are followed)

• if you have signed a contract with a publisher before 1 January 2024, which doesn’t enable open access in compliance with UKRI’s policy
• where a monograph, book chapter or edited collection is the outcome of a UKRI training grant (open access is encouraged but not required)

Application process

We have created a form to collect all of the information required by UKRI so that a Stage 1 application can be made on behalf of an author.

Step 1: complete the form with all of the information required

Step 2: someone from the Library's Research Support team will contact you directly to check any details and to confirm whether an application can be made on your behalf

Step 3: once the application is made, UKRI has stated that they will aim to confirm within 10 working whether the publication is eligible for funding

Step 4: the Library's Research Support team will contact you with UKRI's decision and provide further details of the next stage of the process. It is important that you do not request open access publication from your publisher until you receive confirmation of eligibility as you could be left with an invoice that you are unable to make payment for. 

Additional information

• October 2023: UKRI has published a guide on how to manage third-party copyright, clear permissions, and use third-party content in line with copyright law. This was produced by UKRI in collaboration with Professor Emily Hudson, Professor Tanya Aplin, and Clare Painter Associates. 

Some 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.

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:

Applicable to articles submitted for publication from 1st April 2013 to 1st April 2022. 

If an article was submitted prior to 1 April 2022, authors should contact openaccess.publishing@durham.ac.uk for guidance