UKRI Open Access Review

Kyle Brady
Thursday 2 May 2019

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) recently released a statement giving more details about the upcoming Open Access review. UKRI encompasses the 7 research funding councils formerly under the RCUK umbrella, as well as Research England and Innovate UK. The statement confirmed that UKRI will retain it’s commitment for open access going forward, stating that:

“sharing new knowledge has benefits for researchers, the wider higher education sector, businesses and others.” (UKRI, https://www.ukri.org/news/update-on-ukri-open-access-review/)

The update also confirms that the new open access policy will align policies across the various funding councils, as currently Medical Research Council (MRC) and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have different terms. The new policy will also provide the opportunity to align more closely with the next Research Excellence Framework after 2021. But they go on to clarify that the next REF policy will have it’s own specific review process, so there is still room for divergence:

“The OA policy for the REF after next will be communicated following an analysis of the responses to the consultation. It is the intention to align as closely as possible to the UKRI OA policy, whilst taking into account the differences for a policy associated with grant funded research and research that is submitted to a UK-wide research assessment exercise.” (UKRI, https://www.ukri.org/news/update-on-ukri-open-access-review/)

The UKRI review is currently set to conclude in Spring next year, with final policy launch in March 2020.

The press release is here: https://www.ukri.org/news/update-on-ukri-open-access-review/
The full details of the review can be read here: https://www.ukri.org/funding/information-for-award-holders/open-access/open-access-review/

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