Open Access

Funder and REF Requirements for Open Access

Discover what researchers need to do in order to comply with funder Open Access policies

Introduction

Open Access can help to maximise the impact of your research, because it makes it as easy as possible for others to discover and use your findings. It enables practitioners, business leaders and policy-makers to more easily apply the results of research in ways that can have a positive effect on people's lives. Additionally, it can lead to your work being more frequently cited and it may also foster opportunities for future collaboration. Funding bodies want the research they fund to be as impactful as possible, so many of them require certain research outputs to be published open access.

Open Access policies are often broadly similar, but it is quite common for funders to differ in the details. For example, most policies focus on journal articles and conference papers, but some also cover other types of output such as books or research data. The aim of this guide is to provide a summary of some key requirements and help you understand how to comply with them.

This guide uses some specific terms relating to Open Access and publishing. You may wish to explore some of our other guides for definitions of these terms:

  • The Basics of Open Access: For more information about fundamental concepts.
  • Open Licensing: For more information about different types of open licence.
  • Paying for Gold: For more information about the support available to RGU researchers for publishing Gold Open Access journal articles.

If you have any questions or would like another funder to be added to this guide, please contact the Publications Team.

REF Requirements

Overview

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a national assessment of research quality across UK institutions. It is co-ordinated by the four UK national funding bodies: Research England, the Scottish Funding Council, Medr (Wales' Commission for Tertiary Education and Research), and the Northern Ireland Department for the Economy. Performing well in the REF is important, because it can affect institutional funding and rankings.

REF 2029 logo

What you need to do

  • Remember that this applies to all journal articles and conference papers, even if you don't think a particular output is going to be shortlisted for the REF.
  • Ahead of submitting your work for publication, check whether your intended journal or publisher will enable you to comply with the REF requirements.
  • Immediately after your work is accepted by the publisher, make sure that you upload the full-text accepted manuscript to Worktribe. Don't wait until after publication!
  • As soon as possible after uploading your accepted manuscript to Worktribe, make sure that the Publications Team have enough information about your output to deposit it in OpenAIR@RGU ("OpenAIR").
  • The Publications Team can help throughout this process. We can help check whether your intended journal or publisher offers a route to compliance, and we can also help you correctly record your work on Worktribe so that we can add it to OpenAIR as quickly as possible. Just get in touch!

Policy Details

Policy scope

  • Journal articles (published with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) - including research articles, review articles, systematic reviews, rapid communications, discussion papers and creative articles).
  • 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.

Complying via Gold Open Access

  • The version of record (VOR) must be open access on the publisher's website, immediately from the date of first 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.

Complying via Green Open Access

  • 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.

Link to full policy

Chief Scientist Office (CSO) Requirements

Overview

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) is part of the Scottish Government's Health and Social Care Directorates. They aim to support and facilitate high-quality health research conducted in Scotland.

CSO logo

What you need to do

  • Ahead of submitting your work for publication, ensure your manuscript includes acknowledgement of your funding and check whether your intended journal will enable you to comply with CSO's requirements.
  • Immediately after your work is accepted by the publisher, make sure that you know whether your publisher will automatically deposit a copy of your article in Europe PMC / PubMed Central, or whether you will have to do so yourself.
  • The Publications Team can help check whether your intended journal offers a route to compliance and what you might need to do to ensure deposit in Europe PMC / PubMed Central. After acceptance, we can also help you correctly record your work on Worktribe and OpenAIR, to ensure that your CSO article complies with the REF requirements as well.

Policy Details

Policy scope

  • 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.

Complying via Gold Open Access

  • The version of record (VOR) must be open access on the publisher's website, immediately from the date of first 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 provides some financial support for Gold Open Access - see their policy webpage (linked below) for information on how to apply for this. Additionally, various support is available within RGU.

Complying via Green Open Access

  • 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.

Other requirements

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

Link to full policy

EU / EC Requirements

Overview

The European Union provides research funding primarily through "framework programmes", which are administered by the European Commission and which support a large number of projects and initiatives. The two most recent framework programmes are Horizon 2020 (projects funded between 2014-2020) and Horizon Europe (projects funded between 2021-2027).

European Commission logo

What you need to do

  • As soon as possible after the start of your project, ensure that you have a data management plan.
  • Throughout the project, ensure that any research data is deposited (and, where possible, made open access) in a repository, as identified in your data management plan.
  • Ahead of submitting your work for publication, ensure your manuscript includes acknowledgement of your funding and check whether your intended journal or publisher will enable you to comply with the EC's requirements.
  • Immediately after your work is accepted by the publisher, make sure that you upload the full-text accepted manuscript to Worktribe, and further that you deposit (and make open access where possible) related research data in an appropriate repository. Don't wait until after publication!
  • As soon as possible after uploading your accepted manuscript to Worktribe, make sure that the Publications Team have enough information about your output to deposit it in OpenAIR@RGU ("OpenAIR").
  • The Publications Team can help throughout this process. We can offer advice about deposit and sharing aspects of your data management plan. We can also help check whether your intended journal or publisher offers a route to compliance, and we can help you correctly record your work on Worktribe so that we can add it to OpenAIR as quickly as possible.

Policy Details for Horizon 2020 Projects

Policy scope

  • Journal articles (all peer-reviewed articles).
  • Research data (see "Other requirements" below for more information).
  • The above output types are in scope whenever they acknowledge funding from Horizon 2020.
  • Additionally, researchers are encouraged to make out-of-scope output types open access wherever possible.

Complying via Gold Open Access

  • The version of record (VOR) must be open access on the publisher's website, immediately from the date of first 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.
  • Although there is no specific licence required, researchers are encouraged to use any Creative Commons licence.
  • The EC will not reimburse the costs of Gold Open Access if these are incurred after the end of the Horizon 2020 project. However, they 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.

Complying via Green Open Access

  • 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, researchers are encouraged to use any Creative Commons licence.

Other requirements

  • Funding acknowledgement:
    • All outputs (both in-scope and out-of-scope) must include appropriate acknowledgement of EU funding as described in your grant agreement. This should include the name of the action, acronym and grant number.
  • Research data:
    • 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 within 6 months of the project start date. These projects must also make the deposited research data open access: for any data needed to validate published results, this must be as soon as possible; for any other data, this must be after whatever embargo the research team feel is appropriate. Open data must be made available under either a Creative Commons BY licence or a Creative Commons CC0 licence.

Link to full policy

Policy Details for Horizon Europe Projects

Policy scope

  • 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.
  • Additionally, researchers are encouraged to make out-of-scope output types open access wherever possible.

Complying via Gold Open Access

  • The version of record (VOR) must be open access on the publisher's website, immediately from the date of first 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 published 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 (i.e. they will not reimburse costs of publishing in 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.

Complying via Green Open Access

  • 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.

Other requirements

  • Funding acknowledgement:
    • All outputs (both in-scope and out-of-scope) must include appropriate acknowledgement of EU funding as described in your grant agreement.
  • Research data:
    • All projects must develop a data management plan within 6 months of the project start date. This data management plan must also be kept up-to-date throughout the project.
    • Research data must be deposited in a repository as soon as possible after completion of the dataset. (This does not need to be the same repository that is used for any related publications). Following the principle of "as open as possible, as closed as necessary", the data must also be made open access as soon as possible after deposit. Where 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 either a Creative Commons BY licence or a Creative Commons CC0 licence.
  • Technical requirements (repositories):

Link to full policy

NIHR Requirements

Overview

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funds, enables and delivers world-leading health and social care research. Established in 2006, it is funded by the UK's Department of Health and Social Care.

NIHR logo

What you need to do

  • Ahead of submitting your work for publication, ensure your manuscript includes acknowledgement of your funding and a data sharing statement - if relying on Green Open Access, ensure that it includes NIHR's rights retention statement as well. For all articles and papers, check whether your intended journal will enable you to comply with NIHR's requirements.
  • Immediately after your work is accepted by the publisher, make sure that you know whether your publisher will automatically deposit a copy of your article/paper in Europe PMC / PubMed Central, or whether you will have to do so yourself.
  • The Publications Team can help check whether your intended journal offers a route to compliance and what you might need to do to ensure deposit in Europe PMC / PubMed Central. After acceptance, we can also help you correctly record your work on Worktribe and OpenAIR, to ensure that your NIHR article complies with the REF requirements as well.

Policy Details

Policy scope

  • 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 related to 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.
  • Note: certain out-of-scope outputs are still subject to some requirements - see the "Other requirements" section below for details.

Complying via Gold Open Access

Complying via Green Open Access

  • The following rights retention statement must be included in the "Acknowledgements" 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."
    (Of the three licence options in the statement, include only the one that is relevant for your article.)
  • 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.)

Other requirements

  • Funding acknowledgement:
    • All in-scope outputs must include appropriate acknowledgement of NIHR funding using the unique award identifier in the relevant section of the manuscript.
  • Research data:
    • All in-scope outputs must include a data sharing statement, describing how the underpinning research data can be accessed.
  • Technical requirements (journals, publishing platforms and repositories):
    • In-scope outputs must be published or deposited in journals, publishing platforms and repositories that meet various technical criteria. These are defined on the NIHR website. (NIHR Open Research and Europe PMC both automatically meet these criteria.)
  • Additional requirements for out-of-scope outputs:
    • Where a journal article or conference paper is considered out of scope for reasons unrelated to the type of output (e.g. if it is an article arising from a study using NIHR infrastructure, but where only a minority of funding came from NIHR), the accepted manuscript or VOR (if permitted) must still be open access on Europe PMC / PubMed Central. In these cases, the file must be deposited as soon as possible after the date of acceptance. Additionally, any embargo imposed by the publisher must not exceed 12 months.

Link to full policy

UK Health Charities Requirements

Overview

Five major UK charities that sponsor medical research all have very similar requirements for Open Access. They are therefore summarised together in this section. These charities are:

Where the policy of one of these charities differs from the others, this is noted in the summary below.

Although it is also a health charity, the Wellcome Trust has a significantly different policy, which is therefore described in a separate section of this guide.

UK charity logos

What you need to do

  • As soon as possible after the start of your project, note where your particular charity's requirements differ from the rest, especially regarding expectations around research data management and the availability of financial support for Gold Open Access.
  • Ahead of submitting your work for publication, ensure your manuscript includes acknowledgement of your funding and check whether your intended journal will enable you to comply with your funder's requirements.
  • Immediately after your work is accepted by the publisher, make sure that you know whether your publisher will automatically deposit a copy of your article in Europe PMC / PubMed Central, or whether you will have to do so yourself.
  • The Publications Team can help check whether your intended journal offers a route to compliance and what you might need to do to ensure deposit in Europe PMC / PubMed Central. After acceptance, we can also help you correctly record your work on Worktribe and OpenAIR, to ensure that your article complies with the REF requirements as well.

Policy Details

Policy scope

  • Journal articles (all peer-reviewed original/primary research articles).
  • The above output types are in scope whenever they acknowledge funding from any of the five charities.
  • Non-comissioned review articles are also in scope when they acknowledge funding specifically from the British Heart Foundation.

Complying via Gold Open Access

  • The version of record (VOR) must be open access on the publisher's website, immediately from the date of first publication.
  • The VOR must also be deposited in Europe PMC / PubMed Central. Most of the charities permit publishers to impose an embargo of up to 6 months; however, Cancer Research UK requires deposit to be no later than the date of final publication, without embargo. (Many publishers will do this deposit automatically, but in some cases you may need to do this manually via Europe PMC plus).
  • Most of the charities require the VOR to be published under a Creative Commons BY licence when the costs of Gold Open Access have been covered by the funder, and encourage researchers to use this same licence when these costs have been covered through other means. However, Cancer Research UK always requires a CC BY licence (unless the funder grants exceptional permission to use a Creative Commons BY-ND licence instead).
  • All charities offer one or more forms of financial support for the costs of Gold Open Access:
    • Blood Cancer UK offers some limited direct support - see their policy webpage (linked below) for information on how to apply for this.
    • The British Heart Foundation offers a block grant to relevant institutions, but RGU does not receive this. Green Open Access is therefore recommended instead.
    • Cancer Research UK offers a block grant to relevant institutions, but RGU does not receive this. Green Open Access is therefore recommended instead.
    • Parkinson's UK encourages researchers to include Open Access costs in grant applications, or to use unspent money from received grants to cover Gold Open Access costs. Researchers are invited to contact them directly if further funding is required. They also have an agreement with Health Open Research (also known as "AMRC Open Research") to provide a dedicated open publishing platform for all Parkinson's UK-funded research, with no costs for authors.
    • Versus Arthritis offers some limited support for Gold Open Access costs - see their policy webpage (linked below) for information on how to apply for this.
    • Additionally, various support is available within RGU.

Complying via Green Open Access

  • The accepted manuscript or the VOR (if permitted) must be open access on Europe PMC / PubMed Central. Most of the charities permit publishers to impose an embargo of up to 6 months; however, Cancer Research UK requires deposit to be no later than the date of final publication, without embargo. (Some publishers may do this deposit automatically, but you may need to do this manually via Europe PMC plus).
  • Most of the charities encourage researchers to make the repository file available under a Creative Commons BY licence. However, Cancer Research UK always requires this licence (unless the funder grants exceptional permission to use a Creative Commons BY-ND licence instead).
  • Most of the charities do not offer exceptions to their requirements. However, the British Heart Foundation will consider applications for an exception where a researcher's preferred journal does not permit Open Access on Europe PMC within 6 months of final publication.

Other requirements

  • Funding acknowledgement:
    • All outputs (both in-scope and out-of-scope) must include appropriate acknowledgement of charity funding using the award reference number.
  • Research data:
    • Cancer Research UK has several requirements regarding research data. All projects must have a data management plan and all in-scope outputs must include a data sharing statement. Additionally, any research data associated with an in-scope output must be made open access no later than the output's date of acceptance - however, there are some exceptions where data may have commercial potential. See CRUK's data sharing and management policy for more information.
  • Additional requirements for out-of-scope outputs:
    • Several of the charities encourage researchers to share preprints under a Creative Commons BY licence.
    • Parkinson's UK encourages researchers to share all outputs (both in-scope and out-of-scope) under a Creative Commons BY licence where possible.

Links to full policies

UKRI Requirements

Overview

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) incorporates Innovate UK, Research England and the seven UK national research councils: the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). UKRI represents a significant proportion of UK public funding for research.

UKRI logo

What you need to do

  • Ahead of submitting your work for publication, ensure your manuscript includes acknowledgement of your funding. For research articles, also ensure that it includes a data sharing statement and (if relying on Green Open Access) UKRI's rights retention statement as well. For all research articles and long-form publications, check whether your intended journal or publisher will enable you to comply with UKRI's requirements.
  • Immediately after your work is accepted by the publisher, make sure that you upload the full-text accepted manuscript to Worktribe. Don't wait until after publication! For research articles funded by BBSRC or MRC, also make sure that you know whether your publisher will automatically deposit a copy of your article/paper in Europe PMC / PubMed Central, or whether you will have to do so yourself.
  • As soon as possible after uploading your accepted manuscript to Worktribe, make sure that the Publications Team have enough information about your output to deposit it in OpenAIR@RGU ("OpenAIR").
  • The Publications Team can help throughout this process. We can help check whether your intended journal or publisher offers a route to compliance, and what you might need to do to ensure deposit in Europe PMC / PubMed Central (where relevant). We can also help you correctly record your work on Worktribe so that we can add it to OpenAIR as quickly as possible.

Policy Details

Policy scope

  • Research articles:
    • Journal articles (all peer-reviewed research and review articles).
    • Conference papers (all peer-reviewed papers in a journal or in a proceedings series with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), or on an online platform).
    • The above output types are in scope where they were submitted for publication on or after the 1st April 2022.
  • Long-form publications:
    • Monographs.
    • Book chapters (published with an International Standard Book Number (ISBN), including chapters in academic books arising from conferences).
    • Edited collections (not including sets of proceedings).
    • The above output types are in scope where they were first published on or after the 1st January 2024, and where the date of publication is no more than 7 years after the project end date.
  • Note: if it is unclear whether a conference paper should be treated as a research article or a book chapter, UKRI leave this decision to the discretion of the author and the institution.

Complying via Gold Open Access

  • Research articles:
    • The version of record (VOR) must be open access on the publisher's website, immediately from the date of first publication.
    • For research articles acknowledging funding specifically from BBSRC or MRC, the VOR must also be deposited in Europe PMC / PubMed Central no later than the date of first 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 VOR 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.)
    • UKRI offers a block grant to relevant institutions to help cover the costs of Gold Open Access, but RGU has not received this for the current year. However, various support is available within RGU.
  • Long-form publications:
    • The version of record (VOR) must be open access on the publisher's website, within 12 months of first publication.
    • The VOR must be published under any Creative Commons licence, or an Open Government Licence if subject to Crown Copyright.
    • UKRI offers a national fund to help cover the costs of Gold Open Access - applications for funding must be made through the Publications Team.

Complying via Green Open Access

  • Research articles:
    • The following rights retention statement must be included in the "Acknowledgements" 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 UKRI] a Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence] to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising."
      (Of the three licence options in the statement, include only the one that is relevant for your article.)
    • The accepted manuscript or the VOR (if permitted) must be open access on a repository (such as OpenAIR@RGU), no later than the date of first publication, without embargo.
    • For research articles acknowledging funding specifically from BBSRC or MRC, the repository file must also be deposited in Europe PMC / PubMed Central no later than the date of first publication, without embargo. (Some publishers may do this automatically, but you may need to do this manually via Europe PMC plus.)
    • 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.)
  • Long-form publications:
    • The accepted manuscript or the VOR (if permitted) must be open access on a repository (such as OpenAIR@RGU), within 12 months of first publication.
    • The repository file must be made available under any Creative Commons licence, or an Open Government Licence if subject to Crown Copyright.
    • Some exceptions are available to help address certain cases where the above requirements for long-form publications cannot be met.

Other requirements

  • Funding acknowledgement:
    • All outputs (both in-scope and out-of-scope) must include appropriate acknowledgement of UKRI funding, as described on the UKRI website.
  • Research data:
    • All in-scope research articles must include a data sharing statement, even where there are no data associated with the article or the data are inaccessible. See UKRI's website (Annex 1, paragraphs 9-16) for further guidance.
  • Technical requirements (journals, publishing platforms and repositories):
    • In-scope research articles must be published or deposited in journals, publishing platforms and repositories that meet various technical criteria. These are defined on the UKRI website.

Link to full policy

Wellcome Trust Requirements

Overview

The Wellcome Trust is a global health charity based in the UK. The Trust focuses in particular on urgent health challenges and currently approaches this through four programmes of work: one for discovery research, and three others that focus on finding solutions to the challenges of mental health, climate and health, and infectious diseases.

Wellcome Trust logo

What you need to do

  • Ahead of submitting your work for publication, ensure your manuscript includes acknowledgement of your funding and a data sharing statement. For research articles where you are relying on Green Open Access, make sure the manuscript includes the Wellcome Trust's rights retention statement as well. For all research articles and long-form publications, check whether your intended journal or publisher will enable you to comply with the Trust's requirements.
  • Immediately after your work is accepted by the publisher:
    • For research articles, make sure that you know whether your publisher will automatically deposit a copy of your article in Europe PMC / PubMed Central, or whether you will have to do so yourself.
    • For long-form publications, make sure that you know whether you or your publisher are taking responsibility for manually depositing a copy of your work in the National Center for Biotechnology (NCBI) Bookshelf and Europe PMC.
    • For both research articles and long-form publications, also make sure that you deposit (and make open access where possible) related research data in an appropriate repository.
  • The Publications Team can help check whether your intended journal or publisher offers a route to compliance and what you might need to do to ensure deposit in Europe PMC / PubMed Central / the NCBI Bookshelf. After acceptance, we can also help you correctly record your work on Worktribe and OpenAIR, to ensure that it complies with the REF requirements as well.

Policy Details

Policy scope

  • Research articles:
    • Journal articles (all articles reporting on original research).
    • Conference papers (all papers reporting on original research, which are published in a journal or in a set of proceedings, or on an online platform).
    • The above output types are in scope whenever they acknowledge funding from the Wellcome Trust.
  • Long-form publications:
    • Monographs.
    • Book chapters.
    • The above output types are in scope whenever they acknowledge funding from the Wellcome Trust.
  • Note: if it is unclear whether an output is being published in a journal or a book series, the Wellcome Trust state that the output should be treated as a research article rather than as a long-form publication.

Complying via Gold Open Access

  • Research articles:
    • The version of record (VOR) must be open access on the publisher's website, immediately from the date of first publication.
    • The VOR must also be deposited in Europe PMC / PubMed Central no later than the date of first 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 VOR must be published under a Creative Commons BY licence. (If you would prefer to use a Creative Commons BY-ND licence instead, you must apply for this in advance.)
    • The Wellcome Trust offers support for the costs of Gold Open Access in fully open access publication venues only (i.e. they will not financially support the costs of publishing in hybrid journals) - see their Open Access funding guidance for information on how to apply for this. Additionally, various support is available within RGU.
  • Long-form publications:
    • The version of record (VOR) must be open access on the publisher's website, immediately from the date of first publication (or within 6 months of that date if there is no cost for Gold Open Access).
    • The VOR must also be deposited in the National Center for Biotechnology (NCBI) Bookshelf and Europe PMC immediately from the date of first publication (or within 6 months of that date if there is no cost for Gold Open Access). (You or your publisher must do this via the Wellcome Trust's online form.)
    • The VOR must be published under a Creative Commons BY licence wherever possible, or any other Creative Commons licence where a more restrictive licence is necessary.
    • The Wellcome Trust offers some support to cover the costs of Gold Open Access - see their Open Access funding guidance for information on how to apply for this.

Complying via Green Open Access

  • Research articles:
    • The following rights retention statement must be included in the "Acknowledgements" section of the manuscript and in any cover letter accompanying the submission:
      • "This research was funded in whole or in part by the Wellcome Trust (grant number [xxxxx]). For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising."
      (Replace "[xxxxx]" with your actual grant number. If you have obtained permission to use a different licence, replace the name of the licence in the statement above as appropriate.)
    • The accepted manuscript or VOR (if permitted) must be open access on Europe PMC / PubMed Central, no later than the date of first 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. (If you would prefer to use a Creative Commons BY-ND licence instead, you must apply for this in advance.)
    • Alternatively, you can comply with these requirements by uploading your preprint (i.e. the original submitted manuscript) to a platform that is indexed by Europe PMC, under a Creative Commons BY licence. Refer to the "Funder full text included" column in Europe PMC's list of indexed preprint servers to identify appropriate platforms.
  • Long-form publications:

Other requirements

  • Funding acknowledgement:
    • All outputs (both in-scope and out-of-scope) must include appropriate acknowledgement of Wellcome Trust funding, as described on the Trust's website.
  • Research data:
    • All projects must develop a data management plan (referred to by the Wellcome Trust as an "outputs management plan") as part of the grant application. This plan must also be kept up-to-date throughout the project.
    • All in-scope outputs must include a data sharing statement. Additionally, any research data and original software associated with an in-scope output must be made open access no later than the output's date of first publication. Where some or all of the data cannot be made open, it must still be discoverable and available under a managed access procedure.
    • See the Trust's "Data, Software and Materials Management and Sharing Policy" for more information.

Link to full policy