• Journal articles (including research articles, review articles, systematic reviews, rapid communications, discussion papers and creative articles) published with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN).
• Conference papers published with an ISSN, for example in a journal, book series or proceedings series.
• The above output types are in scope where they were first published on or after 1st January 2021.

• The version of record (VOR) must be open access on the publisher's website, immediately from the date of first online publication.
• Although there is no specific licence required, the terms of use must be equivalent to (or more open than) a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND licence.
• The REF team do not provide any financial support for Gold Open Access. However, various support is available within RGU.

• The accepted manuscript or VOR (if permitted) must be open access on a repository (such as OpenAIR@RGU).
• For outputs first published between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2025, the file must be deposited in a repository within 3 months of the date of acceptance. Additionally, any embargo imposed by the publisher must not exceed 12 months for outputs submitted to panels A or B (i.e. STEM disciplines), or 24 months for outputs submitted to panels C or D (i.e. arts, humanities or social sciences).
• For outputs first published on or after the 1st January 2026, the file must be deposited in a repository within 3 months of the date of first publication. Additionally, any embargo imposed by the publisher must not exceed 6 months for outputs submitted to panels A or B (i.e. STEM disciplines), or 12 months for outputs submitted to panels C or D (i.e. arts, humanities or social sciences).
• Although there is no specific licence required, the terms of use must be equivalent to (or more open than) a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND licence.
• Some exceptions are available to help address certain cases where the above requirements cannot be met.

• See the REF 2029 website for the full policy text.

• Journal articles (all peer-reviewed research articles, excluding publisher-commissioned reviews).
• The above output types are in scope where they were submitted to a journal on or after 1st June 2022.

• The version of record (VOR) must be open access on the publisher's website, immediately from the date of first online publication.
• The VOR must also be deposited in Europe PMC / PubMed Central no later than the date of final publication, without embargo. (Many publishers will do this automatically, but in some cases you may need to do this manually via Europe PMC plus.)
• The article must be published under a Creative Commons BY licence. (If you need to use a different licence, you must apply for an exception in advance, with justifications.)
• CSO will reimburse costs of Gold Open Access up to a value of £8,000 per grant or fellowship. This funding must be applied for within 18 months of the award end date. If CSO is not the only funder acknowledged in the article, then the primary investigator must confirm that CSO is the majority funder or otherwise explain why CSO are being asked to reimburse these costs. Use Form 6a to apply for reimbursement. Additionally, various support is available within RGU.

• The accepted manuscript or VOR (if permitted) must be open access on Europe PMC / PubMed Central, no later than the date of final publication, without embargo. (Some publishers may do this automatically, but you may need to do this manually via Europe PMC plus.)
• The version deposited in Europe PMC should also be deposited in OpenAIR@RGU.
• Although there is no specific licence required, a Creative Commons BY licence is preferred.

• All in-scope outputs must include appropriate acknowledgement of CSO funding using the unique award identifier in the relevant section of the manuscript.

• See the CSO website for the full policy text.

• Journal articles (all peer-reviewed articles).
• The above output types are in scope whenever they acknowledge funding from Horizon 2020.
• The EC also encourages researchers to make out-of-scope output types open access wherever possible.

• The version of record (VOR) must be open access on the publisher's website, immediately from the date of first online publication.
• The accepted manuscript or VOR must also be deposited in a repository (such as OpenAIR@RGU), no later than the date of first publication.
• Although there is no specific licence required, the EC recommend using any Creative Commons licence.
• The EC will not reimburse the costs of Gold Open Access if these are incurred after the end of the project. However, they do provide Open Research Europe as a dedicated open publishing platform for all EC-funded research, with no costs for authors. Additionally, various support is available within RGU.

• The accepted manuscript or VOR (if permitted) must be open access on a repository (such as OpenAIR@RGU). It must be deposited no later than the date of first publication. Additionally, any embargo imposed by the publisher must not exceed 6 months (for STEM disciplines), or 12 months (for arts, humanities and social sciences).
• Although there is no specific licence required, the EC recommend using any Creative Commons licence.

• Any research data needed to validate the results of an in-scope article should also be deposited in a repository at the same time as the article is deposited. This can be in either the same or a different repository. There is no requirement for the data to be made open unless the project is part of the Horizon 2020 Pilot on Open Research Data.
• For projects participating in the Pilot on Open Research Data, the project must develop a data management plan as one of the project deliverables, within the first six months of project implementation. Such projects must also make the deposited research data open access as soon as possible for any data needed to validate published results, or after whatever embargo is felt appropriate by the research team for any other data. Open data must be made available under a suitable Creative Commons licence (either CC BY or CC0).
• All outputs (both in-scope and out-of-scope) must include appropriate acknowledgement of EU funding as given in Article 38 of your Grant Agreement. This should include the name of the action, acronym and grant number.

• See Articles 29.2 through 29.5 of the Horizon 2020 Model Grant Agreement (pages 249-254 of the Annotated Model Grant Agreement) for the full policy text.
• See sections 3 and 4 (pages 6-10) of the "Guidelines to the Rules on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Open Access to Research Data in Horizon 2020" for additional guidance on the policy.
• See "Guidelines on FAIR Data Management in Horizon 2020" for further information on data management plans in particular.

• Journal articles (all peer-reviewed articles).
• Book chapters (if the manuscript has been peer-reviewed during the publication process).
• Books, monographs and edited collections (if the manuscript - or a substantial part of it - has been peer-reviewed during the publication process).
• Research data (see "Other requirements" below for more information).
• The above output types are in scope whenever they acknowledge funding from Horizon Europe.
• The EC also encourages researchers to make out-of-scope output types open access wherever possible.

• The version of record (VOR) must be open access on the publisher's website, immediately from the date of first online publication.
• The accepted manuscript or VOR must also be deposited in a repository (such as OpenAIR@RGU), no later than the date of first publication, without embargo.
• Journal articles and book chapters must be published under a Creative Commons BY licence or equivalent. Books, monographs and edited collections must be publihed under any of the following Creative Commons licences or their equivalents: CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND, or CC BY-NC-ND.
• The EC will reimburse the costs of Gold Open Access for fully open access publication venues only (e.g. not hybrid journals). They also provide Open Research Europe as a dedicated open publishing platform for all EC-funded research, with no costs for authors. Additionally, various support is available within RGU.

• The accepted manuscript or VOR (if permitted) must be open access on a repository (such as OpenAIR@RGU), no later than the date of first publication, without embargo.
• Journal articles and book chapters must be made available under a Creative Commons BY licence or equivalent. Books, monographs and edited collections must be made available under any of the following Creative Commons licences or their equivalents: CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND, or CC BY-NC-ND.

• All projects must develop and regularly update a data management plan as one of the project deliverables. The first iteration of the plan must be submitted within 6 months after the grant is awarded.
• Research data must be deposited in a repository (such as OpenAIR@RGU) as soon as possible. This does not need to be the same repository that is used for any related publications. Deposited research data must also be made open access as soon as possible, following the principle of "as open as possible, as closed as necessary"; if some or all of the data cannot be made open, this must be justified in the data management plan.
• Open data must be made available under a suitable Creative Commons licence (either CC BY or CC0).
• Repositories must meet various detailed criteria in order to be considered compliant venues for deposit, both for publications and for research data. Refer to the full policy documentation for more information (links below).
• All outputs (both in-scope and out-of-scope) must include appropriate acknowledgement of EU funding as given in Article 17 (and Annex 5, where applicable) of the Model Grant Agreement.

• See Article 17 of the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement for the full policy text.
• See pages 385-393 of the Annotated Model Grant Agreement for additional guidance on the policy.

• Journal articles (all peer-reviewed articles, excluding publisher-commissioned reviews).
• Conference papers (peer-reviewed papers published in journals).
• The above output types are in scope where they arise from wholly/partly NIHR-funded studies arising from NIHR programmes, personal awards (excluding personal awards that do not fund research) and the global health research portfolio, or where they arise from wholly/mostly NIHR-funded studies using NIHR infrastructure.
• The above output types are in scope where they were submitted to a journal on or after 1st June 2022.

• The version of record (VOR) must be open access on the publisher's website, immediately from the date of first online publication.
• The VOR must also be deposited in Europe PMC / PubMed Central no later than the date of final publication, without embargo. (Many publishers will do this automatically, but in some cases you may need to do this manually via Europe PMC plus.)
• The output must be published under a Creative Commons BY licence (or an Open Government Licence if subject to Crown Copyright). (If you would prefer to use a Creative Commons BY-ND licence instead, you must apply for this in advance.)
• NIHR will pay reasonable costs for Gold Open Access (see NIHR's Open Access funding guidance for more information). NIHR also provides NIHR Open Research as a dedicated open publishing platform for all NIHR-funded research, with no costs for authors. Additionally, various support is available within RGU.

• The submitted manuscript must include the following rights retention statement in the acknowledgement section of the manuscript and in any cover letter accompanying the submission: "For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied [a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence / an "Open Government Licence" / [if permitted by NIHR] a Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence] to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising."
• The accepted manuscript or VOR (if permitted) must be open access on Europe PMC / PubMed Central, no later than the date of final publication, without embargo. (Some publishers may do this automatically, but you may need to do this manually via Europe PMC plus.)
• The version deposited in Europe PMC should also be deposited in OpenAIR@RGU.
• The repository file must be made available under a Creative Commons BY licence (or an Open Government Licence if subject to Crown Copyright). (If you would prefer to use a Creative Commons BY-ND licence instead, you must apply for this in advance.)

• In-scope outputs must include a data sharing statement, describing how the underpinning research data can be accessed.
• In-scope outputs must also include appropriate acknowledgement of NIHR, including the unique award identifier.
• Journals, publishing platforms and repositories must meet various detailed criteria in order to be considered compliant venues for publication or deposit. See the NIHR website for more information.
• Where an output is in scope because of its type, but out of scope for other reasons (e.g. articles arising from NIHR infrastructure studies with a minority of funding from NIHR), a version of the output must still be deposited in Europe PMC / PubMed Central as soon as possible after the date of acceptance. Additionally, any embargo imposed by the publisher must not exceed 12 months.

• See the NIHR website for the full policy text.
• See NIHR's online guidance for further information about how to comply with the policy.

Peer-reviewed research articles published in journals.

Gold route preferred, but Green route is also compliant.

• Location: The version of record must be available open access from the publisher's website.
• Deadline: The version of record must be immediately open access from the date of first online publication.
• Licence: The version of record must be distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY licence when an APC has been paid. When an APC has not been paid, no specific licence is required, but a CC BY licence is still preferred.
• Additional requirements: The version of record must also be deposited in Europe PMC within 6 months from the date of first online publication.

The funder is willing to discuss financial support for APCs on a case-by-case basis, but cannot guarantee that costs will be covered. Contact research@bloodcancer.org.uk.

• Location: The accepted manuscript or version of record must be available open access from Europe PMC.
• Deadline: The full text must be deposited in Europe PMC within 6 months from the date of first online publication.
• Licence: The full text should be distributed under as open a licence as possible, preferring a Creative Commons CC BY licence if available.
• Additional requirements: None specified.

None specified.

The full policy is detailed on the funder's website.

Peer-reviewed research articles and non-commissioned review articles published in journals.

Gold route preferred, but Green route is also compliant.

• Location: The version of record must be available open access from the publisher's website.
• Deadline: The version of record must be immediately open access from the date of first online publication.
• Licence: The version of record must be distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY licence.
• Additional requirements: The version of record must also be deposited in Europe PMC immediately from the date of first online publication.

The funder provides a block grant to certain institutions. RGU has not received any of this block grant and so therefore there is no direct support from the funder to help with the costs of APCs.

• Location: The accepted manuscript or version of record must be available open access from Europe PMC.
• Deadline: The full text must be deposited in Europe PMC within 6 months from the date of first online publication.
• Licence: None specified.
• Additional requirements: None specified.

None specified.

The full policy is detailed on the funder's website.

Peer-reviewed research articles and meta analyses published in journals or databases.

Gold route preferred, but Green route is also compliant.

• Location: The version of record must be available open access from Europe PMC.
• Deadline: For articles accepted on or after 1st January 2022, the version of record must be immediately open access from the date of first online publication. For older articles, the version of record must be open access within 6 months from the same date.
• Licence: The version of record must be distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY licence when an APC has been paid. When an APC has not been paid, no specific licence is required, but a CC BY licence is still preferred.
• Additional requirements: None specified.

The funder provides a block grant to certain institutions. RGU has not received any of this block grant and so therefore there is no direct support from the funder to help with the costs of APCs.

• Location: The accepted manuscript or version of record must be available open access from Europe PMC.
• Deadline: For articles accepted on or after 1st January 2022, the full text must be deposited in Europe PMC immediately from the date of first online publication. For older articles, the full text must be deposited within 6 months from the same date.
• Licence: The full text should be distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY licence if possible.
• Additional requirements: None specified.

None specified.

The full policy is detailed on the funder's website.

Peer-reviewed research articles and non-commissioned review articles published in journals.

Gold route preferred, but Green route is also compliant.

• Location: The version of record must be available open access from Europe PMC.
• Deadline: The version of record must be immediately open access from the date of first online publication.
• Licence: The version of record must be distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY licence when an APC has been paid. When an APC has not been paid, no specific licence is required, but a CC BY licence is still preferred.
• Additional requirements: None specified.

The funder recommends that Open Access costs should be included in grant applications. The funder is also willing to discuss financial support for APCs on a case-by-case basis, but cannot guarantee that costs will be covered. Contact researchapplications@parkinsons.org.uk.

Additionally, the funder has an arrangement with the AMRC Open Research platform, whereby many kinds of output (including research articles, data and software articles, systematic reviews and protocols) can be published Gold Open Access for free.

• Location: The accepted manuscript or version of record must be available open access from Europe PMC.
• Deadline: The full text must be deposited in Europe PMC within 6 months from the date of first online publication.
• Licence: The full text should be distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY licence if possible.
• Additional requirements: None specified.

None specified.

The full policy is detailed on the funder's website.

Peer-reviewed research articles published in journals.

Gold route preferred, but Green route is also compliant.

• Location: The version of record must be available open access from the publisher's website.
• Deadline: The version of record must be immediately open access from the date of first online publication.
• Licence: The version of record must be distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY licence when an APC has been paid. When an APC has not been paid, no specific licence is required, but a CC BY licence is still preferred.
• Additional requirements: The version of record must also be deposited in Europe PMC within 6 months from the date of first online publication.

The funder is willing to discuss financial support for APCs on a case-by-case basis, but cannot guarantee that costs will be covered. Contact the funder through Grant Tracker.

• Location: The accepted manuscript or version of record must be available open access from Europe PMC.
• Deadline: The full text must be deposited in Europe PMC within 6 months from the date of first online publication.
• Licence: The full text should be distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY licence if possible.
• Additional requirements: None specified.

None specified.

The full policy is detailed on the funder's website.

Peer-reviewed research articles (including reviews and conference papers), published in a journal, in a set of conference proceedings with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), or on an online publishing platform. Covers research articles submitted for publication on or after the 1st April 2022.

Monographs, book chapters and edited collections. Covers long-form publications published on or after the 1st January 2024.

For research articles, the Gold route is preferred, but the Green route can be compliant as well. For long-form publications, either Gold or Green routes can be compliant.

• Location: For research articles and long-form publications, the version of record must be available open access from the publisher's website or publishing platform.
• Deadline: For research articles, the version of record must be immediately open access from the date of first online publication. For long-form publications, the version of record must be open access within 12 months from the same date.
• Licence: For research articles, the version of record must be distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY licence, or under a CC BY-ND licence if the funder agrees to an exception. For long-form publications, the version of record must be distributed under any Creative Commons licence, though CC BY is still preferred. Alternatively, both research articles and long-form publications may use an Open Government Licence (OGL), if the work is covered by Crown Copyright.
• Additional requirements: Outputs funded by BBSRC or MRC must also have the version of record deposited on Europe PMC. For MRC-funded outputs, this must happen within 6 months from the date of first online publication.

For research articles, the funder normally provides a block grant to certain institutions. We do not yet know whether RGU will receive a block grant for 2025/2026.

For longform publications, the funder provides a national fund to support Gold Open Access, though there are limitations in terms of what can be funded. Applications for funding are made through the Publications Team. Further details of the available funding are in a separate guide.

• Location: For research articles and long-form publications, the accepted manuscript or version of record must be available open access from a repository (like RGU's OpenAIR).
• Deadline: For research articles, the full text must be deposited in a repository before the date of first online publication. Embargoes on public access to the repository version must not exceed 0 months, so the repository version must be open access no later than the date of first online publication. For long-form publications, the full text must be deposited and open access within 12 months from the date of first online publication.
• Licence: For research articles, the version of record must be distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY licence, or under a CC BY-ND licence if the funder agrees to an exception. For long-form publications, the version of record must be distributed under any Creative Commons licence, though CC BY is still preferred. Alternatively, both research articles and long-form publications may use an Open Government Licence (OGL), if the work is covered by Crown Copyright.
• Additional requirements: Outputs funded by BBSRC or MRC must also have the accepted manuscript deposited on Europe PMC. For MRC-funded outputs, this must happen within 6 months from the date of first online publication.

• Authors must include the following set statement when submitting articles for publication: "For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising." This statement should be included in the funder acknowledgement section of the manuscript and any cover letter.
• All articles must include a data access statement.
• Journal websites, online publishing platforms and repositories must meet certain technical requirements in order to be considered compliant venues for Gold or Green Open Access.
• Authors are encouraged to share preprints of their work. UKRI reserves the right to enforce sharing of preprints during emergencies. Individual councils may have their own requirements around preprints (for example, MRC and BBSRC).
• The funder is willing to consider exceptions for long-form publications on a case-by-case basis, if Open Access does not seem possible. Contact openresearch@ukri.org to discuss.

The full policy is detailed on the funder's website.

Peer-reviewed research articles, monographs and book chapters.

For research articles, the Gold route is preferred, but the Green route can be compliant as well. For monographs and book chapters, only the Gold route is compliant.

• Location: For research articles, the version of record must be available open access from Europe PMC and PubMed Central. For monographs and book chapters, the version of record must be available open access from Europe PMC and the NCBI Bookshelf.
• Deadline: For research articles, the version of record must be immediately open access from the date of first online publication. For monographs and book chapters, the version of record must be open access within 6 months from the same date.
• Licence: For research articles, the version of record must be distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY licence, or under a CC BY-ND licence if the funder agrees to an exception. For monographs and book chapters, the version of record must be distributed under any Creative Commons licence, with CC BY being preferred.
• Additional requirements: None specified.

The funder will provide financial support to cover the costs of Gold Open Access, both for research articles, and also for monographs and book chapters. Contact openaccess@wellcome.org to discuss. For research articles, the funder will provide financial support only if the article is published in a fully open access journal or platform, or in a hybrid journal that is covered by one of RGU Library's offset deals.

The Green requirements below apply only to research articles. Monographs and book chapters can comply with the policy only through the Gold route.

• Location: The accepted manuscript or version of record must be available open access from Europe PMC and PubMed Central.
• Deadline: The full text must be deposited in Europe PMC and PubMed Central immediately from the date of first online publication.
• Licence: The full text must be distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY licence, or under a CC BY-ND licence if the funder agrees to an exception.
• Additional requirements: None specified.

• Grants from this funder include a condition that means grantholders will automatically grant a CC BY licence to all future accepted manuscripts that report original research arising from a Wellcome-funded project. Authors must therefore include the following set statement when submitting articles to peer-reviewed journals: "This research was funded in whole, or in part, by the Wellcome Trust [Grant number]. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission." This statement should be included in the funder acknowledgement section of the manuscript and any cover letter.
• All articles must include a data access statement.
• Authors are encouraged to share preprints of their work. This is a requirement for research with significant public health benefits (such as research addressing a disease outbreak).

The full policy is detailed on the funder's website.