REF2021 decisions continue drive for open access
Following a process of consultation. the four UK funding bodies have published their decisions on several areas of the Research Excellence Framework (REF2021). The document provides guidance on staff, outputs, UoA structure and impact, and has taken account of responses from the HE sector.
In the area of Open Access for publications, evidence from a recent survey shows that significant progress has been made towards the REF OA policy intent to increase substantially the proportion of research that is made available open access in the UK.
Over 80 per cent of outputs in scope of the REF policy met the open access requirements in the first year (to April 2017), or an exception applied.
To build on this progress, the funding councils have confirmed that the REF OA Policy will “require outputs to be deposited as soon after the point of acceptance as possible, and no later than three months after this date”*. This underpins the message most institutions have continued to use to encourage deposit, including the institutional requirements set out in St Andrews.
 |
| St Andrews ‘act on acceptance’ message |
*To take account of some scenarios where outputs are unable to meet this deposit timescale, a deposit exception will apply where deposit has been completed up to three months after publication.
- REF2021 decisions on staff and outputs: http://www.ref.ac.uk/publications/2017/decisionsonstaffandoutputs.html
- Policy for open access in the next Research Excellence Framework: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/rsrch/oa/Policy/
- Questions about deposit requirements? Contact your open access team