UKRI has implemented an open access policy that applies to research articles submitted after 1 April 2022, and monographs, book chapters and edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024.

It aims to ensure that findings from research funded by the public through UKRI can be freely accessed, used and built on. It applies to publications funded by the UK Research Councils: AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, STFC, Innovate UK, and Research England.

This policy applies to publications that need to acknowledge funding from UKRI or any of its councils, and therefore also applies to all UKERC journal articles. The advice on this page should assist researchers in complying with UKRI policies.

Key points:

• UKRI requires immediate open access under the CC BY license upon publication.
• Journal embargoes on Green open access are not permitted.
• Gold open access in subscription journals (hybrid) will not be funded except through transformative agreements or transformative journals.
• All journal submissions must include this submission statement: For the purpose of open access, the author(s) has applied a creative commons attribution (CC BY) licence (where permitted by UKRI, ‘open government licence’ or ‘creative commons attribution no-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence’ may be stated instead) to any author accepted manuscript version arising.
• By including the CC-BY statement (abive) at the point of submission, it is clear what licence you will apply to your accepted manuscript.

Peer-reviewed research articles

The following applies to all journal articles that report original, peer-reviewed research, and acknowledge funding from UKRI. It also applies to peer-reviewed conference papers (published in a journal, or proceedings with an ISSN number) and review articles acknowledging UKRI funding.

You can make your article open access via one of two routes.

1. Route one: you can publish the article open access in a journal or publishing platform. This makes the version of record immediately open access via its website with a creative commons attribution (CC BY) licence or other permitted licence.
2. Route two: you can publish the article in a subscription journal. You can deposit your author’s accepted manuscript in an institutional or subject repository at the time of final publication with a CC BY or other permitted licence. A publisher embargo period is not permitted.

Whether publishing via route one or two, prior to submission, you should check your preferred journal or publishing platform will provide a compliant publishing option and is eligible to receive UKRI open access funds (if you expect to pay for open access).

If a publisher rejects your submission, advises you will need to pay for open access or changes terms of publication, contact your research organisation for advice. Options could include asking the publisher to accommodate compliance with your funding requirements, making the article open access via an alternative route, or identifying an alternative journal, for example.

If publishing through route one

You may be able to access UKRI funding for open access publication costs. You should speak to your research institution prior to submission to find out what funding is available to you. UKRI provides this funding via a block grant to research organisations. You cannot usually claim research article publications costs from your grant.

If publishing through route two

You will need to deposit your author’s accepted manuscript in a repository. Many research organisations have a repository you can use, there are also subject repositories that you can use. UKERC articles can be posted on the UKERC site. Find available repositories using OpenDOAR. Some research councils require you to use a specific repository.

At the point of submission, notify your publisher about licensing of your author’s accepted manuscript. See ‘notify your publisher about licensing’ below.

Use an open licence

The open access version of your article must have a CC BY licence to maximise opportunity for sharing and reuse.

You can also use an Open Government Licence when authors need to comply with Crown Copyright.

A CC BY licence is appropriate in most cases, but you can apply for an exception to use a creative commons no-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence if you think this is needed.

If intending to publish open access via a repository (route two), include this statement in the acknowledgement section of your manuscript and any submission cover letter or note:

• For the purpose of open access, the authors has applied a creative commons attribution (CC BY) licence (where permitted by UKRI, ‘open government licence’ or ‘creative commons attribution no-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence’ may be stated instead) to any author accepted manuscript version arising.

This ensures it is clear at the point of submission what licence you will apply to your author’s accepted manuscript.

Compliance checklist

1. Before submission, check whether the author’s institution has a transformative agreement with the journal. If so, check with that institution’s open access support staff whether the article can be made Gold open access through the agreement.
2. If 1 doesn’t apply, check whether the journal is a fully open access journal: https://doaj.org/. If it is, ask the institution where the UKRI funding is held (or, failing that, the corresponding author’s institution) whether the charges for Gold open access can be paid from its UKRI open access block grant.
3. If 1 and 2 don’t apply, seek advice from the institution where the UKRI funding is held, but ensure that the funding acknowledgements section of the submitted paper and any covering letter include the submission statement.

Ask a question about the open access policies

Check for an existing answer in the UKRI open access policy supplementary FAQs.

Email: openaccess@funding.ukri.org