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Research Publication, Open Access and Rights Retention Policy

Research England Open Access Policy for REF 2021

The REF Open Access (OA) Policy requires that in order to be eligible for Research Excellence Framework 2021 (REF) journal articles and conference proceedings with an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) accepted for publication after 1 April 2016 must be made OA either by depositing the full text into an OA repository (UDORA) or by publishing in an OA journal/ platform. Even if an output has been published OA, it it still strongly recommended that the article be deposited into a repository as well. The policy does not currently apply to monographs, other long-form publications, creative or non-text outputs, or data but this is could change for REF2029.

Currently, there is no requirement from REF for authors to retain the rights to their work. That said, it has been strongly encouraged for several years. However, as UK Research and innovation (UKRI) have embraced this position, the University of Derby has been proactive in updating and amending its Publication and Open Access Policy to include a requirement for Rights Retention (RR) in order to pre-empt the revised OA policy from REF for the 2029 submission. It is not known if there will be a requirement for authors to retain their rights but the University of Derby's approach to RR ensures that authors are compliant with all funder policies on OA, regardless of the funders' position on RR. You can find out more about the current OA policy here.

Outputs must be deposited in an institutional repository, such as UDORA, at the point of acceptance for publication and no later than three months from this date. Alternatively, outputs can be deposited in a subject based repository. ResearchGate and other academic social networking sites do not count as repositories and will not be considered as such by Research England. 

It is also vital that you submit publications which have been published in a subscription journal to UDORA. Adding them to ORCiD will not be enough as ORCiD only records bibliographic information about the publication and does not provide full text. A manuscript must be submitted and consequently deposited into a repository to enable OA. UDORA will then automatically update your ORCiD. 

The Policy Criteria: 

  • The policy refers to journal articles and conference proceedings with an ISSN.
  • This came into effect for outputs accepted for publication after 1st April 2016.
  • Deposit must be of the author's accepted and final peer reviewed manuscript. 
  • As of 1st April 2018 qualifying outputs must have a record and accompanying manuscript in a repository within 3 months of acceptance, i.e. the date when the publisher notifies the author.
  • The author's accepted and final peer reviewed version of the paper must be made accessible within 1 month after deposit or after the end of the publisher embargo period (if applicable). The maximum embargo periods are 12 months for REF Panels A and B, and 24 months for REF Panels C and D.
  • Qualifying research outputs that do not comply will not be eligible for REF submission.

Exceptions

Occasionally, it will not be possible for an output to fulfil the criteria. An exception is permitted in the following cases:

  1. You were not employed by a UK HEI at the point of acceptance.
  2. You did not have use of a repository at the time of acceptance.
  3. You experienced a delay securing the final peer-reviewed text (e.g. for multi-authored papers).
  4. It would be unlawful, or present a security risk, to deposit the output.
  5.  The output depends on third party content for which open access rights could not be granted.
  6. The publication concerned required an embargo period that exceeds the stated maxima, and was the most appropriate output. You will need to provide a short statement explaining this choice. 
  7. The publication concerned actively disallows OA deposit, and was the most appropriate output. You will need to provide a short statement explaining this choice. 
  8. At acceptance, you were at a different UK HEI and it has not been possible to determine compliance. 
  9. A short-term technical failure with the repository prevented compliance.
  10. A external service provider failure prevented compliance (e.g. a subject repository ceased to operate). 

Further exceptions:

  • The ‘Other exception’ which should be used where an output is unable to meet the criteria due to circumstances beyond the control of the HEI, such as periods of extended leave due to sickness. 
  • The output was not deposited three months from the date of acceptance (post 1 April 2018) but was deposited three months from the date of first online publication. In this instance, the exception can be applied as many times as necessary as long as the output meets all other requirements. 

You can more details about criteria for exceptions in the REF 2021 Guidance on Submissions in paragraphs 252 - 255.

How to comply

To comply with the Research England policy; upon receiving notification of acceptance from your publisher, the eligible research output should have a record entered into a repository, such as UDORA, with the full-text uploaded. To comply using UDORA:

  1. Log in to the University of Derby Research System https://research.derby.ac.uk/ 
  2. Under 'My Record' select 'My Research Outputs' and then 'Add output'.
  3. Check journal permissions using information provided by Sherpa which is the REF recommended tool. 
  4. Create a comprehensive record, completing all fields: Authors, Affiliation, Date, Title, Keywords
  5. 'Add document' and upload the final peer-reviewed Author Accepted version of your paper. 
  6. A Creative Commons BY license 4.0 (as default) will be added to the deposit prior to deposit by Repository Editors.
  7. Save and 'Deposit item'. 

Guidance on Revisions to REF2021 and the OA requirements as a result of COVID-19

In response to the global Coronavirus pandemic, Research England have released updated guidance on outputs and their OA status. Where an in scope output has not been made OA due to effects brought about by the Covid-19 outbreak, HEIs may apply the ‘other exception’. The guidance states that this exception may apply to individual circumstances (such as ill health, caring responsibilities); other personal circumstances related to COVID-19, such as furloughed staff, health-related or clinical staff diverted to frontline services, staff resource diverted to other priority areas within the HEI  and/or external factors related to COVID-19. Please see the guidance document for further information and clarification.