Funder requirements

The UKRI Open Access Policy is Plan S aligned and requires:

• Immediate open access for peer-reviewed research articles submitted for publication from 1 April 2022 (includes reviews* and conference papers with an ISSN).
• Open access within 12 months of publication for monographs, book chapters and edited collections published from 1 January 2024.

*The policy applies to in-scope reviews that are commissioned or invited. Examples include: evidence syntheses, systematic reviews, systematic-literature reviews, analyses, meta-analyses and meta-syntheses. The policy does not apply to book or narrative reviews, although open access is encouraged.

An online webinar on how to comply with the policy was held on Wednesday 30th March 2022. Webinar slides are available here. The webinar recording can be accessed here for staff and here for PGRs. An update webinar will be held in January 2024 and webinar materials made available here thereafter.

Peer-reviewed research articles

The full text of the UKRI Open Access Policy is available online. Peer-reviewed research articles are considered in-scope of the policy if submitted during or after the end of the funded project.

Compliance

In summary, two routes are permitted:

• Route 1 – Publisher Route
• Publish the Version of Record in immediate open access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence (or by exception CC BY-ND) in a journal or publishing platform.
• This includes publishing in fully open access journals (for example as listed in DOAJ) and hybrid journals covered by the University's transformative arrangements (for most agreements you will need to be the corresponding author). 

• Route 2 – Repository Route
• Publish the Version of Record in closed access in a journal or publishing platform; and
• Deposit the Author’s Accepted Manuscript in a compliant institutional (STORRE) or subject repository at the time of final publication under a CC BY licence. No embargo period is permitted.
• Submissions must include the following text in the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript and any cover letter/note accompanying the submission:
• For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising
• The use of this statement closely aligns with the Plan S Rights Retention Strategy – read the Plan S Fact Sheet webpage before submitting your manuscript to a publisher.
• Note: publishing in a hybrid journal outside of a publishing agreement will not be covered by UKRI funds nor by the University's OA Fund.

Additional deposit requirements

• Biomedical research articles that acknowledge MRC or BBSRC funding are required to be archived in Europe PubMed Central.

Statements

• Unless you are very confident you will be able to publish via Route 1 it may be sensible to include the rights statement in all your UKRI-funded submitted manuscripts, so you have at least one compliant route available to you.
• Remember to include a Funder Acknowledgement statement.
• Remember to include a Data Access Statement (also called Data Availability Statement), even where there are no data associated with the article or the data are inaccessible.

Tools

• A Journal Checker Tool is available which can show compliant routes for your preferred journals.

Funding

• The University is in receipt of a UKRI Open Access Block Grant to support costs for compliance with the UKRI open access policy regarding peer-reviewed research articles. You should consult the University’s Open Access Fund Guidance.

The full text of the UKRI Open Access Policy is available online. Long-form publications are considered in-scope of the policy if published in the period of seven (7) years following the end of the funded project.

Compliance

In summary:

• The Version of Record or the Author’s Accepted Manuscript of a long-form publication must be free to view and download within a maximum of 12 months of publication via:
• an online publication platform,
• publishers’ website, or
• institutional or subject repository.
• The open access version must be published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence (or by exception CC BY-ND).
• The open access version should include, where possible, any images, illustrations, tables and other supporting content.
• However, including third-party copyrighted materials subject to a more restrictive licence (including ‘All Rights Reserved’) is permitted. If you have any questions or concerns about third-party copyrighted materials, you should consult the guidance on managing copyright under UKRI open access policy and contact openaccess@stir.ac.uk.

Exemptions

• UKRI permits some exemptions, for example, where the work is the outcome of a UKRI Training Grant* or where, after due consideration, the only appropriate publisher is unable to offer a compliant open access option.

*While these outputs are eligible for an exemption, open access costs for outputs arising from a UKRI Training Grant are eligible for funding for open access costs from UKRI’s central fund and open access publication is encouraged.

• You should contact openaccess@stir.ac.uk for assistance in determining if an exemption may apply.

Funding

• UKRI manages a central fund to support costs for compliance with the UKRI open access policy regarding long-form publications. Applications to UKRI for support are managed through RIBE. You should consult the University’s Open Access Fund Guidance (available shortly).
• The maximum funding available from UKRI including VAT is:
• Book Processing Charge: £10,000
• Chapter Processing Charge: £1,000
• Alternative Funding Models Charge: £6,000 (first output); £3,000 for subsequent outputs in same outlet

Authors are strongly encouraged to select publishing venues whose fees fall below the funding maximums outlined above.

Some funding may be available for Rights Clearance Costs (for third-party copyrighted materials). However, these costs can and should still be included in grant applications. Where they are included in an application to the central fund under the UKRI OA Policy, they will be deducted from the applicable maximum funding available.

• Wellcome's Open Access Policy applies to original, peer-reviewed research articles (not reviews) arising from work funded, or partly funded, by Wellcome.
• Applies to articles submitted for publication from 1 January 2021.
• The policy is in line with the key principles of Plan S.
• Research articles must be: 
• Published under a Creative Commons attribution licence (CC BY), unless Wellcome agreed an exception, to allow publication under a CC BY-ND licence;
• Made freely available through PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC by the official final publication date.

All grant holders will:

• Automatically grant a CC BY public copyright licence to all their future funded Author Accepted Manuscripts.
• So authors must include the following statement in all submissions of original research to peer-reviewed journals:

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 CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.

• This statement should be included in the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript and any cover letter that accompanies the submission

There are three compliant routes for publication:

1. Route 1: Publish in a fully Open Access journal or platform that takes responsibility for making the Version of Record for the article freely available from Europe PMC at the time of publication, under a CC BY licence

• • Wellcome will cover fair and reasonable article processing charges (APCs) (if certain conditions are met).
  • Note Stirling has Transformational Deals that cover the costs of Open Access publishing for a number of publishers – see Publisher memberships and transformative arrangements.
  • Otherwise: Wellcome will cover APC costs directly. So as soon as your paper is accepted for publication, email Wellcome to arrange the payment. Email openaccess@wellcome.org with the following details:
    • your current employing organisation; title of the paper; Wellcome grant reference number; journal title; proposed date of publication; cost of the open access fee.

2. Route 2: Publish in a subscription journal and take responsibility for making the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) freely available from Europe PMC at the time of publication

• • This route relies on the Rights Retention Strategy that aims to enable deposit of your Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in Europe PMC where the AAM can be made immediately publicly available with zero embargo. However, before you submit your manuscript for publication see the important notes above on use of the Rights Retention Statement.
  • Wellcome advise that when you select a journal you should check the terms of the publishing contract to make sure that it doesn't affect your ability to comply with their policy. You should not sign a publishing contract that:

1. 1. 1. applies an embargo period to the self-archiving of the AAM post publication, and
      2. does not allow the AAM to be made freely available under a CC BY licence.

• • Some publishers may submit to Europe PMC for you, (otherwise see how to submit to Europe PMC yourself
  • When complying by this route, no APC should be paid to the publisher

3. Route 3: Publish in a subscription journal through a transformative arrangement that is available to you via your organisation

• • The University Library has joined a number of transformative arrangements to support this route – see our page Publisher memberships and transformative arrangements.
  • Under this route, the publisher takes responsibility for making the Version of Record for the articles freely available in Europe PMC at the time of publication, under a CC BY licence.
  • If you are not the corresponding author and no other author has access to a Transformative Agreement, then you should use the Rights Retention strategy and self-archive a copy of the Author Accepted Manuscript in Europe PMC on publication and under a CC BY licence.

Wellcome’s preference is for the Version of Record to be made Open Access so their preferred routes are routes 1 or 3. However, Wellcome have also said that the preference for the Version of Record is not unconditional and at any price.  So if the APC price levied via Route 3 seems to be neither fair or reasonable, authors can instead use the Rights Retention Strategy (Route 2) to meet their open access requirements.

A Journal Checker Tool is available so you can check which routes you can use for your preferred journals.

Further Wellcome requirements include:

• Data Statements:
  • Articles must include a statement explaining how other researchers can access any data, original software or materials underpinning the research - see: Wellcome's Data Guidelines.
• Preprints:
  • Where there is a significant public health benefit to preprints being shared widely and rapidly, such as a disease outbreak, Wellcome require the posting of preprints.
• Monographs and book chapters:
  • All original scholarly monographs and book chapters: 
    • Must be made freely available through NCBI Bookshelf and Europe PMC as soon as possible and no later than within 6 months of the official final publication date - see Depositing your Wellcome-funded research.
    • Where a fee has been paid to the publisher to make the work open access, it must be published under a Creative Commons licence (preferably CC BY).
• Wellcome-funded organisations must sign or publicly commit to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) (Stirling is a DORA signatory).

See full details of the Wellcome open access policy

• Note: researchers  who do not comply with this policy will be subject to appropriate sanctions. These may include Wellcome:
• not accepting new grant applications;
• suspending funding to organisations in extreme cases.

Note: to fulfil Stirling's policies you should also deposit your published article or Author Accepted Manuscript in the University’s Repository STORRE where it will be made publicly available with zero embargo.  Deposit via Worktribe: in the University Portal: select ‘Access Worktribe (Research System) under ‘I want to’.

The CSO open access policy requires that papers published as a result of their funding are:

• Made publically available within six months of the date of publication (through an open access journal or deposit in a repository such as STORRE)

and

• deposited in Europe PubMedCentral within six months of the date of publication.

Researchers can apply to CSO for up to £8,000 towards the costs of Open Access publishing of a paper arising from a CSO funded research project within 18 months of the financial reconciliation of the grant.

The NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) / DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care) open access policy:

• applies to peer-reviewed research articles, including review articles (not commissioned by publishers) and conference papers submitted for publication from 1st June 2022.
• Peer-reviewed research articles which are otherwise out of scope (e.g. NIHR Infrastructure research studies with minority NIHR funding), but which acknowledge NIHR support and funding must be deposited and made freely accessible through Europe PubMed Central (PMC), as soon as possible, but no later than 12 months post the official final publication date.
• Requires immediate open access through Europe PMC upon final publication under a CC BY licence (or Open Government Licence (OGL) or on a case by case basis a CC BY-ND licence).
• If an open access fee, such as an article processing charge (APC), has been funded by the NIHR, then the publisher must ensure the Version of Record is deposited in Europe PMC and made public at the time of publication.
• Submissions to subscription journals must include the following statement in the funding acknowledgement, applying the CC BY licence to the accepted manuscript:

For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising.

How to comply with the NIHR policy:

• Complying by publishing in a fully open access journal:
• If an article processing charge (APC), has been funded by NIHR, then the publisher must ensure the Version of Record is deposited in Europe PMC and made public at the time of publication. 

• Complying by publishing in a subscription journal and making your Author Accepted Manuscript available in open access via a repository (Green Open Access):
• Submissions to subscription journals must include the following statement in the funding acknowledgement: 
• For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising.
• Self-deposit your final Author Accepted Manuscript in Europe PMC upon final publication under a CC BY licence.  

• Complying by paying an APC to publish in a subscription journal (hybrid journal):
• Submissions to subscription journals must include the following statement in the funding acknowledgement:
• For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising.
• If an article processing charge (APC), has been funded by NIHR, then the publisher must ensure the Version of Record is deposited in Europe PMC and made public at the time of publication.
• Note: publishing in a hybrid journal outside of a publishing agreement will not be covered by the University's OA Fund.

Further requirements

• You must include appropriate acknowledgment of NIHR, including the unique award identifier and disclaimer in the funding or acknowledgments section of the manuscript and in the funding information requested by the publication on submission. Read more on how to acknowledge the NIHR in research outputs.
• You must include a data sharing statement describing how the underpinning research data can be accessed. Where there are reasons to protect access to the data, for example commercial confidentiality or sensitivities around data derived from potentially identifiable human participants, these should be included in the statement. Read more about the NIHR position on the sharing of research data.
• NIHR provide an Author Compliance Checklist.
• All Stirling research articles should be deposited in STORRE via Worktribe in addition to any other repositories used. (To meet REF requirements deposit when your article is accepted for publication).

  Funding for the NIHR Open Access Policy

• Grant holders with awards issued before 1st June 2022 should use the open access budget included in their overall research costs to pay for open access for articles.
• Grant holders with awards issued after 1st June 2022 will be provided with an 'open access funding envelope' from which they can cover the costs of open access for a period extending to two years beyond the end point of their research funding. This open access funding envelope will be automatically allocated on top of the costs of successful awards (see list of eligible NIHR schemes). So, researchers should not include open access costs as part of their grant application form.

NIHR Open Access publications funding guidance

Publications funded in whole or in part by Horizon 2020 grants must meet their open access requirements:

• Open access policies apply to research articles, monographs and other research publications supported in whole or in part by Horizon 2020 funding.
• Publications should be deposited in a suitable open access repository (such as STORRE)  This must be done as soon as possible and at the latest upon publication. (Note to meet REF requirements you should deposit when your article when it is accepted for publication).
• These publications should be made open access in the repository within six months of the official date of publication (12 months for outputs in social sciences and humanities).
• Horizon 2020 open access guidelines
• Horizon 2020 factsheet for researchers

Complying Horizon 2020 via Green open access:

• If you are publishing in a subscription journal, you can comply by depositing your final accepted manuscript to STORRE via Worktribe, provided that the journal's embargo on Green open access is no longer than:
• 12 months, for Social Sciences and Humanities papers
• 6 months, for all other papers
• Note that to meet REF requirements you should deposit when your article when it is accepted for publication.
• The Horizon 2020 open access guidelines (page 7) require you to include specific information when you upload to a repository.

Complying Horizon 2020 via Gold open access:

• You can publish in a subscription journal with a Gold open access option (a hybrid journal) or a fully Open Access journal and comply by depositing your final publisher version in STORRE via Worktribe.
• Note that to meet REF requirements you should deposit when your article when it is accepted for publication.
• Open access charges can be paid from your Horizon 2020 grants, provided they are incurred during the duration of the project.
• You can apply to the University OA Fund to cover Open Access publishing costs if you are publishing in a fully Open Access journal or if it is required due to the Funder’s Open Access policy.

CRUK’s open access policy:

• requires all original research articles (not reviews) to be made immediately open access from Europe PubMed Central (with a CC BY by licence if an APC has been paid).
• Applies to articles accepted for publication from 1st January 2022.
• You can comply by any of these routes:
• Route 1: Publish in a fully open access or hybrid journal which makes the Version of Record (VoR) freely available immediately upon online publication. Typically, the journal deposits the final publication in Europe PMC on the authors' behalf.  When an APC has been paid the CC BY licence must be used.
• Route 2: Publish in a subscription journal and make the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) available immediately upon online publication by self-dposit in Europe PubMed Central preferably under a CC BY licence.
• Route 3: Publish in a journal covered by Stirling's transformative agreements (typically you are required to be the corresponding author).
• Stirling is not in receipt of a CRUK open access block grant, you can therefore:
• Pay for APCs using any available underspend on your active CRUK response mode grant. (Going forward APC costs should not be included in any new application budgets – see CRUK costs guidance).
• If you have no grant money left you can apply to the University's OA Fund.
• You must acknowledge Cancer Research UK funding in the funding acknowledgement section of the paper, using your grant reference number.

You are strongly encouraged to post pre-prints and publish them under a CC BY licence on a platform indexed in Europe PMC.