From 1 January 2024 the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) open access policy will apply to long-form outputs (monographs, book chapters and edited collections) required to acknowledge UKRI funding. Long-form outputs must be open access within 12 months of publication. Monographs which are only required to acknowledge a UKRI training grant are encouraged, but not required to follow the policy.
UKRI-funded researchers can apply to UKRI via their research organisation for funding. A two-stage process will ensure authors and their research organisations have confirmation that their outputs are in scope of the UKRI fund as they proceed with publishing agreements. UKRI will then release funds upon notification of publication.
How do I comply?
- Your final version of record or final accepted version must be free to view and download via an online publication platform, publisher’s website, or institutional or subject repository within a maximum of 12 months of publication.
- The open access version of your publication must have a Creative Commons licence, with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence preferred, although any CC licence to a minimum of Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) is permissible. An Open Government Licence is also permitted.
- Images, illustrations, tables, and other supporting content should be included in the open access version, where possible. UKRI provide comprehensive guidance on the inclusion of third party copyright material in open access research publications. You may also contact our copyright and licensing team with any queries.
- If you are publishing a monograph, book chapter or edited collection before 1 January 2024, there is no requirement to publish open access.
You can find more information about options on our open access monographs page.
Funding for open access monographs, chapters and edited collections
You are no longer permitted to include long-form OA publication costs in UKRI research funding applications. However, you should still include any anticipated costs associated with clearing rights for 3rd party materials that will be reproduced in related publications.
If you want to make the published version of a long-form output open access and your publisher charges a Book or Chapter Processing Charge (BPC or CPC), you may be eligible for support from UKRI’s central ring-fenced open access monograph fund. Applications to the fund must be made by Library Services on behalf of the author. UKRI will reject applications received directly from authors. The application must be approved by UKRI before you commit to an open access publishing agreement.
Apply for UKRI funding for monographs and book chapters through Library Services.
Exemptions to the policy
The UKRI policy does include several exemptions (detailed on our UKRI exemptions guidance page). UKRI require that:
- Institutions (not individual authors) report all in scope long-form outputs published under an exemption.
- Authors explore all alternative options with their library service before applying an exemption.
Before publishing under an exemption, UKRI funded authors must apply for a review by completing a UKRI monographs exemption request form. Library Services will use the information on the form to support authors in exploring alternatives and will make recommendations to the University OA Monograph Oversight Group. The group will make a final decision regarding use of the exemption.
Details of UKRI exemptions to the policy