UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) new policy will increase opportunity for the findings of publicly funded research to be accessed, shared and reused. Following extensive consultation with the sector, UKRI has published a single Open Access Policy for research publications that acknowledge funding from its councils.
UKRI’s updated policy requires immediate open access for peer-reviewed research articles submitted for publication from April 1, 2022.
It also includes a new requirement for monographs, book chapters and edited collections published from January 1, 2024 to be made open access within 12 months of publication. UKRI will provide increased funding of up to £46.7 million per annum to support the implementation of the policy.
UKRI aims for the new policy to be as easy as possible to implement for all stakeholders and will put in place supporting actions including policy guidance, stakeholder engagement and support to help up-take of open access journal agreements.
Monitoring and reporting will be more automated and light-touch. UKRI has worked with the higher education funding bodies to ensure that any open access policy within a future research assessment exercise will seek commonality with the UKRI policy.
UKRI recognises the importance of international coordination to increase open access to research and the new policy aligns closely with those of other international funders, including other members of cOAlition S.
The UKRI Open Access Policy will replace the existing research councils Policy on Open Access, which applies to peer-reviewed research articles acknowledging research council funding and was published in 2013.
The policy is the outcome of the UKRI open access review, which commenced in autumn 2018. UKRI consulted on a draft position during spring 2020, receiving 350 responses.
To support successful implementation of the policy UKRI will work with the sector to put in place supporting interventions, including substantially increasing UKRI funding support for open access in recognition that this is required to meet the new policy intent and the extension of our policy to long-form outputs; dedicated funding to Jisc in support of sector open access negotiations, with guidance and infrastructure to aid the up-take of UKRI compliant open access options; and continuing work to support culture change around publication, in that research should be recognised for its intrinsic merit rather than where it has been published.
Click here to read the original press release.
