City Research Online and REF

The Open Access policy for the REF allows for publisher embargoes. Publications with embargoes will still be eligible for submission to REF2029

What is an embargo? 

Embargoes are set out by publishers and are periods of time during which the full text of an accepted manuscript of a publication is not allowed to be openly accessible. During this time, the publication details will be available in City Research Online as well as the abstract of the publication. The full text of the publication will only be accessible on individual basis with the author's permission. 

Permissible embargo lengths

For outputs published 1st January 2021 to 31st December 2025

• Main panel A and B: 12 months
• Main panel C and D: 24 months

For outputs published 1st Jan 2026 to 31st December 2028

• Main panel A and B: 6 months
• Main panel C and D: 12 months

When does an embargo period start? 

• at a point of first publication (this is, in most cases, an online publication date)

Publications with exceeding lengths of embargo periods

• These publications will be eligible for the submission to REF as exceptions provided the publisher has been identified as the most appropriate for the publication. 

How to check for embargoes? 

• The publications team applies embargoes as appropriate during the processing of individual publications. The Open policy finder service provides details on embargoes and other self-archiving policies and can be searched by a journal title or a publisher name.