BU Research Blog

In conjunction with the International Open Access Week, it is timely to highlight the UKRI Open Access policy that was introduced in April 2022. If you are a UKRI grant holder, this will apply to you.

As of 1st April 2022, the new UKRI Open Access Policy became effective.

This policy applies to publications which need to acknowledge funding from UKRI or any of its councils. This includes funding from:

• the research councils
• Research England
• Innovate UK.

The policy applies to the following types of publication, when they are required to acknowledge funding from UKRI or any of its constituent councils

a. Peer-reviewed research articles, including reviews and conference papers, that are accepted for final publication in either a journal, conference proceeding with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), or publishing platform

b. Monographs, book chapters and edited collections, as defined at Annex 1 of the policy document (the policy will only apply to these publication types after 1 January 2024)

For research articles, these are the key things you need to know – 

• the policy applies to all research articles submitted for publication on or after 1 April 2022
• there are two different compliant routes to open access
• Route 1 – Publish your research article open access in a journal or publishing platform which makes the Version of Record (VOR)(also known as the final published version) immediately open access via its website
  • The VOR must be free and unrestricted to view and download. It must have a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence, or other licence permitted by UKRI (see the policy for more information)
  • The research article must be made open access in a journal or publishing platform that facilitate access, discovery and reuse
• Route 2 – Publish your research article in a subscription journal (also known as hybrid journal) and deposit the Author’s Accepted Manuscript (or if the publisher permits, you can upload the VOR) in an institutional repository (in our case, this would be BURO – Bournemouth University Research Online, and the deposit is done via BRIAN), or a subject repository at the same time of final publication, as defined at Annex 1.
  • The deposited version must be free and unrestricted to view and download. It must have a CC BY licence, or other licence permitted by UKRI
  • A publisher-requested delay or ’embargo period’ between publication of the Version of Record and open access of the deposited version is not permitted.
  • The research article must be made open access in a repository that facilitate access, discovery and reuse

For more details on the policy requirements, please refer to the UKRI Open Access policy website.

If you are a UKRI grant holder and you are unsure about what you should do to comply, please email your questions to OpenAccess@bournemouth.ac.uk