UKRI open access policy

• Open access to research articles

  Applies to: Peer-reviewed journals articles, review articles (including invited or commissioned articles); conference papers accepted for a conference proceeding with an International Standards Serial Number (ISSN); articles accepted for publication in a publishing platform.

  Does not apply to: Preprints. Outputs arising from Frontier Research grants (UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee awards).

  Applicable date: Articles submitted from 1 April 2022.

  How to meet the new requirements

  Route 1: Open access via the publisher

  Publish in a journal or platform that will make the article open access via its website

  Requirements:

  • The final version of record must be openly and freely downloadable without restrictions with a Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY).
  • The final published version must be released immediately on publication.

  Supporting mechanisms:

  • Transitional Agreements are available for many publishers, granting St Andrews corresponding authors open access at no additional cost.
  • Community action initiatives to democratise open access costs across partner institutions
  • UKRI will continue to provide institutions with a Block Grant to support Transitional Agreement costs, as well as Article Processing Charges in fully open access journals and Transformative Journals that meet strict criteria.

  Route 2: Open access via Pure

  Publish in a subscription journal and deposit the peer-reviewed accepted manuscript in Pure on acceptance for publication.

  Requirements:

  • The accepted manuscript must be openly and freely downloadable without restrictions with a Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY).
  • The accepted manuscript must be released immediately on publication.

  Supporting Mechanisms:

  • Include the Rights Retention Statement on submission to ensure transparency regarding chosen open access route.
  • An Open Government Licence (OGL) may be used when a research article is subject to Crown Copyright.
  • Researchers may apply for permission to use a more restrictive Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence for the open access version of a research article.
  • Where appropriate, 3^rd party copyright material (such as images, photographs, maps, figures) may be exempt from the licencing requirements.

  ‘For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright Licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising’

  

• Open access to long-form publications

  Applies to: Monographs, book chapters, edited collections

  Does not apply to: Trade books, scholarly editions, exhibition catalogues, Textbooks, fictional or creative writing. Outputs arising from Frontier Research grants (UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee awards).

  Applicable date: Long-form works published after 1 January 2024

  How to meet the new requirements

  Requirements:

  • Ensure the final version or the accepted manuscript is openly and freely downloadable without restrictions. A Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) is preferred, but other CC licences are permitted.
  • Embargoes are allowed but must not be more than 12 months.

  Routes to achieve open access

  • Deposit an accepted author manuscript in Pure, to be made open access within 12 months.
  • Publish the final version open access with the publisher themselves. Where fees are paid, open access must be immediate.

  Support mechanism:

  • From 2024 UKRI will provide earmarked funding to support open access fees for books, this will be held centrally by UKRI, rather than being issued as a Block Grant to Institutions.

  • Guides available:

    Managing third party materials in open access publications: Guidance on managing copyright under UKRI open access policy – UKRI

    Copyright and Creative Commons licences: Publishing under the UKRI open access policy: copyright and Creative Commons licences - Jisc 

  Exceptions: (may apply)

  • If, after careful consideration of your publishing venue, a publisher is unable to offer an open access option.
  • If the long-form work is the result of a Training Grant
  • An Open Government Licence (OGL) may be used where subject to Crown Copyright.
  • Where appropriate, 3^rd party copyright material (such as images, photographs, maps, figures) may be exempt from the licencing requirements or may carry more restrictive licences.
  • If 3^rd party copyright material prevents open access to the complete work and no other open access options are available.

  Funding application process:

  • Eligibility: UKRI-funded researchers
  • Application: Researchers should apply for UKRI funding via St Andrews. Please follow the instructions below.
  • Scope confirmation: A two-stage process has been established to ensure that authors and St Andrews receive confirmation that their outputs are in scope of the UKRI fund as they proceed with publishing agreements:
    Stage 1: Submit your application as soon as possible to
    openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk. We will review and confirm the eligibility and scope of your project and register the output with UKRI.
    
    Information required:
    Date of agreed contract (if applicable)
    Author name(s)
    Title of monograph/chapter
    UKRI grant external reference number(s)
    Publisher
    Proposed date of publication
    Estimated cost of open access fee or alternative model
    Statement about relationship of the output to the UKRI-funded project or grant, including the author's role in this
    Stage 2: UKRI will review and process applications, releasing funds upon notification of publication.
    If UKRI confirm that the publication is eligible for funding, the following information is required:
    Date of publication
    Confirmation of open access publication
    Financial information
    Any changes to the information provided at Stage 1

  Funding available:

  Funding is available for long-form publications that are published within seven years of the end of the grant acknowledged.

  The maximum funding including VAT is:
  Book Processing Charge (BPC) £10,000
  Chapter Processing Charge (CPC) £1000
  Costs of alternative models (e.g. Subscribe2Open or Diamond OA) £6000

  Some funding may be allowed to cover rights clearance, within the maximum amounts allowed.

  Claims and queries MUST be sent in advance of any agreement to cover fees.
  Email the required information to openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

• Funder acknowledgement

  The UKRI Open Access Policy applies to peer-reviewed research articles, and monographs, book chapters and edited collections that acknowledge funding from UKRI or any of its councils.

  UKRI requires publications to acknowledge support received from UKRI, using the following standard template, this applies to all research regardless of whether it is in scope for the open access policy:

  • The funding agency should be written in full
  • Grant numbers should be in square brackets
  • Multiple funding agencies should be separated by a comma, with ‘and’ before the final funder

  Examples:

  ‘This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number xxxx]’.

  ‘This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Arts and Humanities Research Council [grant number zzzz]; and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [grant number XXXX]’.