UKRI requirements for journal articles and conference proceedings

Any researcher who receives UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding must ensure that their research is made available according to the new UKRI Policy on Open Access.

Follow these steps to ensure you meet UKRI open access requirements:

1. Get to know the UKRI open access requirements and options

  • Check the dedicated pages on the UKRI website
  • The new policy came into force for journal articles and conference proceedings with an ISSN submitted for publication from 1 April 2022.
  • Books and chapters published from 1 January 2024 will also need to abide by the policy

2. Key features of the new policy for journal articles

  • UKRI’s new policy requires immediate open access to journal articles and conference proceedings with an ISSN that acknowledge its funding.
  • Compliance can be achieved via two routes:
  • Route one: publish the article open access in a journal or open publishing platform. The Version of Record (final published version) must be immediately open access via the publisher’s website with a Creative Commons attribution (CC BY) licence. An Article Processing Charge (APC) payment is usually required, or:
  • Route two: publish the article in a subscription journal and self-archive the Author's Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in SOAS Research Online. You must ensure that the AAM becomes available as soon as the Version of Record is published. The AAM must have a Creative Commons attribution (CC BY) licence and a publisher embargo is not permitted.

3. What you need to do to publish open access (route one)

  • You should check that a compliant route is available to you before you submit your article.
  • Follow the guidelines below or contact outputs@soas.ac.uk for further advice.
  • If you are the corresponding author you can publish open access at no extra cost in a journal covered by one of our Read and Publish agreements. If the corresponding author is at another institution they should have access to similar agreements.
  • If your journal is not covered by a Read and Publish agreement, you will most likely need to pay an open access fee (APC). Be aware that UKRI will only fund APCs for fully open access journals listed on the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) or transformative hybrid journals listed in the cOAlition S Journal Checker Tool (note: a UK specific journal checker is in development).
  • If you intend to publish in a hybrid journal that does not meet these requirements, you will need to find an alternative source of funding to meet the publication costs.
  • If your journal meets the requirements, read the Terms of Reference (PDF) then fill in the online application form to access UKRI funds for Open Access fees.

4. What you need to do to self archive (route two)

  • If you are intending to comply with open access via route two, the journal will need to have a self-archiving policy that permits depositing the Author's Accepted Manuscript (AAM) on an institutional or subject repository (for example, SOAS Research Online) with a CC BY licence and a zero embargo.
  • Information on journals’ self-archiving policies can be found on the Sherpa Romeo website.
  • To make your intentions clear to the publisher and assert your rights over the AAM you must include the following statement in your submission: “For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a ‘Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising”.

5. Make sure you include an acknowledgement of your funding

  • Include a full statement acknowledging your funding from the UKRI for example “This work is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, Grant/Award Numbers: 1079159, ES/P009867/1".

6. Include a statement about the research data that underpins your research

  • Articles must include a Data Access Statement. The data does not have to be openly available (but this is encouraged). If there is no associated data, this must be mentioned in the statement.
  • University of Manchester has some excellent guidance on formulating Data Access Statements.

UKRI requirements for monographs, book chapters and edited collections

  • Monographs, book chapters and edited collections published from January 2024 that acknowledge UKRI funding will need to be available Open Access.
  • Further details on in-scope items can be found in Annex one of the policy 
  • The final Version of Record or the Author’s Accepted Manuscript must be freely available via an online publication platform, publisher’s website or repository within a maximum of 12 months of publication and have a Creative Commons licence. 
  • The Open Access version should include any images, illustrations, tables and other supporting content. 
  • Any supporting content that is provided by third-party copyright holders can be published with a more restrictive licence or on an “All Rights Reserved” basis. 

Procedure 

  • Prior to submission of your book proposal, ensure your preferred publisher offers a compliant route – either an Open Access publishing programme or allowing archiving of the author accepted manuscript in SOAS Research Online. If neither of these options are available, investigate other publishers before considering an exemption.
  • Inform your publisher, and any collaborators, (such as editor of a collection you are contributing to) about UKRI’s Open Access requirements. 
  • Stage 1: Before a contract is signed, SOAS registers the book/chapter with UKRI to get their confirmation on eligibility for funding. In order that we can do this please fill in this form
  • We will need some basic information on the book, plus a statement from the author about the relationship of the output to the UKRI project. We will submit this information to UKRI. 
  • Once UKRI have confirmed eligibility (in about 10 days) you can go ahead and write the book/chapter and get it published. 
  • You should ensure that SOAS receives the publisher's invoice. 
  • Once the book is published, SOAS will provide confirmation to UKRI so we can be reimbursed (Stage 2) 
  • UKRI will fund a maximum of £10,000 for an Open Access Book Processing Charge, or £1,000 for a chapter. 
  • When using UKRI funds the book must be Open Access immediately on publication. A 12-month embargo is not allowed in this case.

Compliance via repository deposit

  • You can also comply with the UKRI open access requirement for longform publications by depositing the author accepted manuscript of your book or chapter (the version post peer review but before the publisher's final version) into SOAS Research Online and making it available within 12 months with a creative commons licence. There should be no publisher charges for this 
  • As self-archiving policies for books are often not as easy to find as those for journals, it is important that you check with your publisher whether your contract permits you to do this and send us evidence of this permission when you deposit. 

Third-party material 

  • Third-party content (such as illustrations or photographs) should only be included under the terms which the rightsholder has released it. 
  • This may mean that the third-party material within an Open Access book or chapter is subject to a more restrictive licence or appears as ‘all rights reserved’ - UKRI considers this approach compliant with its policy. 
  • An exception to the policy may be applied when reuse permissions for third-party materials cannot be obtained and there is no suitable alternative option available to enable Open Access publication. 
  • See the UKRI guidance document for researchers and research organisations to manage third-party copyright to comply with UKRI’s open access policy: https://www.ukri.org/publications/guidance-on-managing-copyright-under-ukri-open-access-policy/ 

Exemptions 

UKRI recognises there may be instances where meeting Open Access requirements for long-form outputs may not be possible. Valid reasons for an exemption are: 

  • You have signed a contract with a publisher before 1 January 2024, which doesn’t enable Open Access in compliance with UKRI’s policy 
  • The most appropriate publisher, after liaison and consideration, is unable to offer a compliant Open Access option 
  • Where reuse permissions for third-party materials cannot be obtained and there is no suitable alternative option available to enable Open Access publication 
  • Long-form outputs arising from UKRI Training Grants are exempt from the requirements 
  • Your book is a trade book 

There is no requirement to seek UKRI’s approval on the use of exemptions. However, UKRI ask research organisations to notify them when an exemption is applied. If you need an exemption please fill in this form including the reason for the exemption. Further guidance on when and how to use an exemption is provided in Annex 3 of the UKRI open access policy.