UKRI Policy for research articles
This page is for research articles, for other outputs see UKRI open access policy for long-form publications.
Scope
The UKRI open access policy for research articles applies to:
- Peer-reviewed research articles, including reviews and conference papers.
- Acknowledge funding from AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, STFC, Innovate UK or Research England.
- Submitted on or after 1 April 2022 (the former policy applies to publications submitted before this date).
- Accepted for publication in a journal, conference proceeding with an ISSN, or by a publishing platform.
The policy will also apply to book chapters, monographs and edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024 as described at the UKRI Policy for long-form publications page.
How to comply
In scope publications must be made open access by the official date of publication and with a CC BY licence (unless UKRI has approved use of a CC BY-ND licence.) These requirements apply whether the publication is made open access via the gold or green route.
UKRI funded researchers are advised to confirm that their chosen journal is compliant via one of the routes described below before submission and to contact us to discuss any issues that arise.
Route 1
Publish in journal or publishing platform that meets UKRI technical requirements and makes the version of record immediately open access under a CC BY licence (or CC BY-ND if approved by UKRI).
You can comply via this route when publishing in a fully open access journal, a subscription journal included in one of our transformative agreements or subscription journal that has been approved by Jisc as meeting the research sectors requirements for transition to open access.
Route 2
Publish in a subscription journal (that is not covered by a transformative agreement) and make the author accepted manuscript (AAM) open access in a compliant repository by the date of final publication and under a CC BY licence. No publisher embargo period between publication and open access of the AAM is permitted.
To facilitate compliance via this route all submissions must include the following statement in the acknowledgements and in any accompanying cover letter:
For the purpose of open access, the author 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.
Please note that the publishing agreements of many journals impose terms that would not currently allow compliance via this route. Authors may therefore need to retain the right to make their accepted manuscript open access on publication under the CC BY licence. Please refer to our guidance on the University Research Publications & Copyright Policy for more information on how we can support you with this.
UKRI open access funds
The university's UKRI block grant can be used to pay open access charges for publishing in fully open access journals and in journals that meet sector requirements for transformative journals (as defined by Jisc). Tools to allow authors to identify such journals are in development.
The UKRI block grant cannot be used to fund open access in subscription journals that do not meet Jisc requirements for transformative journals or transitional agreements. Authors intending to publish in such journals would need to find an alternative source of funding to meet any open access publication costs.
Please note that when publishing in a subscription journal included in one of our transformative or publisher agreements there will be no additional costs for compliant open access.
Data access statement
You must include a data access statement in your article, even where there is no data associated with the article or the data are inaccessible. This 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. The university research data service provides guidance on creating data access statements.
Research council deposit requirements
Biomedical research articles that acknowledge MRC or BBSRC funding are required to be archived in Europe PubMed Central.
For outputs produced by researchers at the British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the National Oceanography Centre, a copy of the publication should be deposited in NORA.
Preprints
Preprints are not in-scope of the UKRI open access policy. However, UKRI encourages the use of preprints to facilitate open research practices.
Related
Scope
The new UKRI open access policy will apply to book chapters, monographs and edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024 and which need to acknowledge funding from one of the UK Research Councils (AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC and STFC), Innovate UK or Research England.
How to comply
See UKRI Policy for long-form publications for further details.
Policy Summary
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) represents the AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC and STFC. Peer-reviewed research articles (including non-commissioned reviews) and conference proceedings arising from research funded by the UKRI must be made open access via either the Gold or Green routes. The decision on which route to open access to follow remains at the discretion of the researchers and their research organisations.
University Research Commitee (URC) agreed that where an UKRI-compliant green open access option is offered by the publisher, authors are expected to comply via this route. Gold open access will only be paid for publications in open access journals or where the paper cannot comply with UKRI policy via the green route.
UKRI Green open access
Where an UKRI-compliant green open access option is offered by the publisher, Newcastle University authors should comply via this route by publishing the article as subscription access and uploading the accepted manuscript to MyImpact. The version uploaded should be the author's manuscript after any changes from peer review, but before publisher copy-editing and typesetting.
UKRI policy allows for publisher embargos on access to manuscripts of 12 months for STEM disciplines (BBSRC, EPSRC, STFC and NERC) and 24 months for arts, humanities and social science (AHRC and ESRC). For papers acknowledging MRC funding, the maximum embargo is 6 months from publication in all circumstances.
The open access team check publisher terms and conditions for all manuscripts uploaded to MyImpact before making them open access in ePrints. We will contact authors to discuss any issues with meeting the requirements of the UKRI open access policy.
Deposit in ePrints via MyImpact
Papers acknowledging MRC funding should also be deposited in Europe PubMed Central within 6 months of publication. MRC grantholders will have been issued with a Europe PMC Plus account to deposit papers.
UKRI Gold open access
UKRI provide a block grant to the university to support authors with the costs associated with Gold open access. URC agreed this grant can only be used for eligible publications in fully open access journals or where the paper would be non-compliant with UKRI policy via the green route. Where an UKRI-compliant green open access option is offered by the publisher, applications will be rejected and authors advised how to comply via the green route.
Additionally, the maximum open access fee (inclusive of VAT) that can be paid from this grant is capped at £3,500 for subscription (hybrid) journals and £5,000 for fully open access journals. Page and colour charges cannot be claimed.
Therefore to be eligible for funds from the UKRI grant, publications must meet the following criteria:
- An original peer-reviewed research article, conference proceedings or non-commissioned review article
- Acknowledges funding from one or more UKRI funders
- Made freely available by the publisher at publication
- Published with the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence (not CC-BY-NC or CC-BY-NC-ND).
- The open access fee (including VAT) is less than £3,500 for a subscription (hybrid) journal or £5,000 for an open access journal.
- Unable to comply with the UKRI open access policy via the green route (see above)
If your publication meets these criteria, you should choose Gold open access and apply for UKRI funding.
The university has also entered into transformative agreements with publishers to provide UKRI-compliant open access at no additional cost to authors or the institution.
Statement on access to research data
The UKRI policy on Open Access requires "all research papers, if applicable, to include a statement on how underlying research materials, such as data, samples or models, can be accessed". The Research Data Service can provide guidance on what to include in the data access statement, where to store the data, and under what conditions data does not need to be made open.
References
UKRI Open Access Policy and Guidance