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Open Access & OARS: REF & the UKRI Open Access policy

The REF and how to ensure eligibility

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the UK’s system for assessing the excellence of research in UK higher education providers (HEPs).

During March 2021 we successfully completed our REF2021 submission. We are now in the REF2029 cycle. 

Detailed information about eligibility criteria and the submission plans of the university are available here

REF Assessment Criteria  

Each REF 2029 submission will be assessed against three elements*: 

  • People, culture and environment (25% weighting) – replaces the environment element and will include an increased emphasis on research culture.

  • Contribution to knowledge and understanding (50% weighting) – replaces the outputs element. It will largely be based on assessment of research outputs and will also include evidence of broader contributions to the advancement of the discipline.

  • Engagement and impact (25% weighting) – replaces the impact element. It will consist of impact case studies and an accompanying statement.

(*Based on the currently proposed criteria for REF 2029, this will be updated as the final REF 2029 criteria is published)

The REF open access policy

For submissions falling within the Contribution to knowledge and understanding (formerly 'Outputs') element, the terms of the REF open access policy must be adhered to.  We ask that for all in-scope outputs the following actions are undertaken.

  1. Create a record in OARS upon acceptance for publication

  2. Upload your AAM to OARS within 3 months of acceptance

The author accepted manuscript (AAM), sometimes called the post-print (the version following peer-review, but prior to publisher formatting) must be made available in Open Access Repository Suffolk (OARS) within this timeframe for the output to be considered compliant.

If you have paid for 'Gold' Open Access then the output will meet the criteria upon publication, but we still ask for these outputs to be added to OARS.

How to meet the REF open access policy requirements

*Please also see the related REF 2029 eligibility flow chart

FAQs

All research outputs may be eligible for REF submission, including articles, monographs, chapters, art installations. However, the open access criteria only currently applies to journal articles and papers published in journals with an ISSN. With these we would ask that the full-text is added to OARS. For most other output types a metadata record is all we currently require in OARS.
Please see further information here.
Open Policy Finder is a searchable database of journals, publishers, and funders open access requirements.
The previous guidance indicated that if you published papers at another institution which met the criteria of REF2021, they could be claimed by both the originating institution and the new institution. This was referred to as the 'portability' of outputs. For REF 2029 it is now a requirement that outputs have a substantive link to the submitting institution, so portability of outputs will no longer apply.
In addition to appearing on the publisher's official platform, we ask that Gold research outputs are also deposited into OARS.
Embargo periods are often set by publishers, and while these are currently permitted in line with the previous REF guidance (and will be applied on your behalf when our team finalises your OARS deposit), if your research is funded you should carefully check their open access requirements as they will often set their own criteria around embargoes.
It may be possible to apply exceptions when making OARS deposits. This means that some outputs may still be eligible for REF submission even if certain other requirements have not been met (usually if inhibited by restrictions outside of the author’s control) but these will be explored on a case-by-case basis.
Visit the REF website for information on submissions, REF panels and the latest guidance.

The UKRI Open Access Policy

The UKRI Open Access Policy
 

For outputs funded by UKRI their own specific open access policy must be adhered to.  This policy applies to research publications that acknowledge funding from UKRI and any of its councils. 

Research articles

Research articles submitted for publication on or after 1 April 2022 must be openly accessible on publication and without embargo vcia one of the following routes: 

  • Gold route:  Publication via an open access journal, with the final published version (also known as the version of record) made openly available via the publisher’s site, with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence applied (or other licence permitted by UKRI*)
  • Green route:  Publication via a subscription journal, with the accepted version (or if the publisher permits, the final published version) made available via a repository (such as OARS) without embargo, and with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence applied (or other licence permitted by UKRI*)

Longform outputs

Monographs, book chapters and edited collections published on or after 01 January 2024 must also be made open access no later than 12 months after publication under CC BY or another CC licence


Rights retention

If you are required to follow the green (subscription journal) route most publishers will require you to apply an embargo to the article (these are typically 6 - 24 mouths).  Doing so would contradict the policy criteria.  UKRI provides a way around this issue, by advising you to apply rights retention language to your work, making publishers aware of your open access needs upon submission.  You should apply a CC BY licence and should add the following text in the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript and any cover letter/note accompanying the submission:


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.


This statement will inform publishers of your intentions and will allow them to make an informed decision regarding acceptance of your article.  If the article is accepted, you should then be free to bypass the embargo period and add the article to your repository without embargo.


Data access statement

UKRI also requires in-scope research articles to include a Data Access Statement.  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.


Typically a data access statement should include:

  • Where the data can be accessed (preferably a data repository)
  • A persistent identifier, such as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or accession number, or a link to a permanent record for the dataset
  • Details of any restrictions on accessing the data and a justifiable explanation (e.g. for ethical, legal or commercial reasons)

Some examples of data access statements are below:

  • “Data supporting this study are openly available from (name of repository) at (DOI, accession number or URL)”
  • “Data supporting this study are included within the article and/or supporting materials”
  • “Data supporting this study cannot be made available due to (give reasons why the data cannot be shared)”

Or, where there is no data associated with the research:

  • “No new data were generated or analysed during this study”

The complete UKRI open access policy details and guidance is available here.