UKRI and NIHR Open Access Policy changes

UKRI has released its new Open Access Policy, which includes implications for journals, monographs and author rights retention. UKRI have indicated that ‘any outputs which satisfy the UKRI policy will also satisfy any future REF policy’. NIHR have also released a new Open Access Policy.

 

UKRI Open access requirements

Articles submitted for publication on or after 1 April 2022 will need to be openly accessible immediately on publication. There are two routes to compliance: Gold route: final published version available openly on the publisher’s site and Green route: accepted version (or the final published version), available on a repository without embargo and a CC BY licence.

 

The key changes are:

• From April 2022, it will no longer be possible to use the UKRI Open Access block grant to pay for open access charges in hybrid journals that are not part of a transitional agreement.
• Embargoes will no longer be permitted – if the green route is taken, the repository version must be openly available when the article is published.

 

What researchers need to do: Researchers will need to think about open access requirements before submitting an article to a journal. Information on current agreements is available on the Open Access website.

 

UKRI Data Access Statements

The new policy places a stronger emphasis on Data Access Statements (DAS); these are statements that specify where the research data associated with the paper can be found and how they can be accessed.

 

Key differences to note:

• All in-scope articles must contain a DAS, even if there is no data associated with the article or the data cannot be accessed.
• If applicable, links to a dataset should be provided.
• Researchers or their institutions own the data generated from UKRI-funded research. They are responsible for licensing research data.
• UKRI grant holders having difficulties including DAS in their paper can contact UKRI.

 

NIHR Open access requirements

Articles submitted for publication on or after 1 June 2022 will have similar requirements to UKRI and need to be openly accessible immediately on publication.

 

Briefings and training sessions are available on open access and funder policies, and what these mean for researchers. To request a session for your department, please email Bea Gini at info@osc.cam.ac.uk.