Understanding open access

The UK's higher education funding councils are supportive of open access initiatives and as a result of this introduced an open access policy for REF2021. A new policy for REF2029 was announced this year and covers two publication periods: 1st January 2021 - 31st December 2025 and 1st January 2025 - 31st December 2028.

Main points of the policy are:

• Journal articles and conference proceedings with an ISSN published between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2025 must be deposited in an institutional repository as soon as possible after the acceptance, and within 3 months of the date of acceptance.
• Journal articles and conference proceedings with an ISSN published between 1st January 2026 and 31st December 2028 must be deposited in an institutional repository no later than three months after early online publication.
• Publications within the scope of the policy and are embargoed in line with publisher policies (using institutional repository or publishers' open access licences) will be eligible for the next REF
• Policy allows for a number of exceptions to allow for as many publications as possible to be eligible for the next REF.

For full details please see the guide on City Research Online and REF

City St George's, University of London (Clerkenwell and Moorgate campuses) has an institutional open access policy

Main points of the policy are:

• All research outputs published by Clerkenwell and Moorgate campuses academics within scope of the REF policy should be openly available through City Research Online, City St George's (Clerkenwell and Moorgate campuses) institutional repository
• All research outputs, such as book chapters, should also be deposited in CRO, unless there are specific technical or legal reasons not to do so
• All journal articles and conference proceedings with an ISSN submitted to the REF Output Review by Clerkenwell and Moorgate staff should be openly available through City Research Online.

Please refer to the policy for full details.

Many UK and international funders have open access requirements for research outputs produced using their grants. To find out more about these please refer to the Research Funder Open Access Policy guide.