Open access for UKRI short-form publications
The policy applies to UKRI-funded research articles from 1 April 2022.
To ensure you can fulfill the conditions of your UKRI grant, we recommend checking the latest policy requirements at an early stage. These include significant changes to scope and funding arrangements.
Please email openaccess@nottingham.ac.uk as early as possible for advice.
What do I need to know?
The open access (OA) policy applies to research funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which comprises the seven research councils (formerly grouped as RCUK), Research England and Innovate UK.
The policy applies to peer-reviewed articles, reviews, conference papers submitted for publication from 1 April 2022
The policy supports the transition to immediate open access to government funded research.
What are the key requirements concerning research articles?
We recommend checking the full policy requirements on the UKRI website at an early stage.
Research articles must be openly available immediately upon publication. This can be achieved either via a gold route or via a green route to open access.
- Research articles must be openly available upon publication. This can be achieved one of two ways - either gold or green open access.
Gold
- Publish in a fully open access journal/platform or hybrid journal (funding restrictions apply) that makes the article immediately OA via its website. An Article Processing Charge (APC) payment is usually required.
- Publish in a journal covered by a transformative agreement (also known as a 'Read and Publish' deal).
Green
Publish in a subscription / hybrid journal for free and release the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) via a repository, upon publication (no embargo), under a CC BY license.
This route requires you to include the rights retention text prescribed by UKRI in the funding acknowledgement section of your paper and any cover letter accompanying the submission:
"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’"
Plan S rights retention strategy resources
We advise authors not to sign a publishing agreement which is in conflict with funder requirements.
- UKRI will not fund open access charges in hybrid journals (journals which publish both subscription and open access articles) unless the journal is covered by a transformative agreement (TA).
- Articles must be licensed using a CC BY or Open Government licence. Publishing under a CC BY-ND licence may be available upon request (subject to UKRI approval).
- Publications must acknowledge support received from UKRI. Guidance on the required wording is available at 'Acknowledging your funding'.
- Articles must include a data availability statement and an ORCID iD in the manuscript.
- UKRI will not fund page or colour charges.
What do I need to do?
- Read the UKRI Policy to ensure you are meeting your funding conditions.
- Fill in the our enquiry form or email us for guidance before you submit your manuscript.
- Check if the rules of your journal or platform meet your grant conditions. You can use the Journal Checker Tool to see if your journal meets the requirements of the UKRI open access policy.