REF 2029 Open Access Policy

What this policy covers

The definition of in-scope outputs for the purpose of submission to REF 2029.

The technical requirements for in-scope outputs to meet the submission requirements:

• for outputs published between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2025
• for outputs published between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2028

The percentage of tolerance for outputs not compliant with policy within any unit submission.

The allowable policy exceptions applicable for each of the above periods.

The audit approach to be developed.

Introduction

The UK higher education funding bodies believe that the outputs of publicly funded research should be freely accessible and widely available.

• Open access to research brings benefits to: researchers, students, institutions, governments, public bodies, professionals and practitioners, citizen scientists and to many others.
• Open access has the potential to make research more efficient and impactful. It delivers better value for money to those who fund it.

The funding bodies introduced a policy for open access for journal submissions and conference contributions for REF 2021.

• Evidence from REF 2021 demonstrates a high degree of compliance with the open access policy requirements for that exercise.
• This policy seeks to build on this and introduces a small number of changes to the policy requirements, set out in key changes in paragraph 3 below.
• REF 2029 provides an opportunity to further embed progress and underpin the ongoing evolution of good practice both across the sector generally and the REF exercise more specifically.

The policy aligns with wider attitudes and approaches to open access, including:

• UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Open Access Policy for journal articles and conference proceedings which has been in operation since 01 April 2022.
• Wide-spread international support for increased open access publication of research, promoted by organisations such as Coalition S.
• Funding conditions of charitable and other research funders, both within the UK and internationally.

The REF 2029 open access policy sets out minimum requirements for open access for in-scope outputs, while encouraging researchers and HEIs to move beyond these minimum requirements.

• HEIs can demonstrate where and how they have gone beyond the minimum requirements and highlight best practice and innovative approaches for publication within the People, Culture and Environment element of their submission.

Summary

Requirements

For REF 2029 there will continue to be an open access requirement for journal articles and conference proceedings.

There is no open access requirement in REF 2029 for any other output types (e.g. longform outputs, including monographs, book chapters and scholarly editions).

The funding bodies continue to encourage institutions to make other types of outputs available as open access, where appropriate.

In-scope and out of scope outputs

Outputs in-scope for the open access policy are journal articles and conference contributions that have an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) and were published between 01 January 2021 and 31 December 2028.

In-scope outputs are required to be made open access to be eligible for submission in REF 2029, subject to any allowed exceptions and tolerance allowance for non-compliance.

Outputs published by a journal or conference proceedings which do not require peer review are within the scope of this policy.

The outputs should be published and/or deposited (as relevant), discoverable, and free to read, download and search within, by anyone with an internet connection.

The funding bodies recommend that institutions fully consider the extent to which authors currently retain or transfer the copyright of works published by their researchers, as part of creating a healthy research environment.

Pre-print articles or any other output types without an ISSN, are not subject to these open access requirements for submission.

Pre-reviewed articles published through open publication platforms, will also meet open access requirements by default. Examples of this would include, but are not limited to, F1000Research, Wellcome Open Research and eLife.

For all in-scope outputs submitted to REF 2029 published between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2025, the open access policy requirements for REF 2021 applies, updated to the REF 2029 context and subject to one further agreed exception. These are summarised out below in paragraph 5 .

Revised open access policy requirements for REF 2029 will come into force for all in-scope outputs from 01 January 2026 these are set out below in paragraph 7.

Changes to the submission requirements

Several changes to the submission requirements have been made from the REF 2021 open access policy requirement which will come into effect on 01 January 2026.

Deposit: outputs subject to a post-publication embargo which are shared through institutional repositories (“Green” open access) are required to be deposited on publication rather than on acceptance for publication, which was the case in REF 2021.

Licensing: outputs should be licensed as openly as possible; the funding bodies strong preference is for licensing as CC-BY or other license formats meeting this standard of openness. However, licensing outputs at CC-BY-NC or CC-BY-ND (including CC-BY-NC-ND) or licenses meeting an equivalent standard of openness are also permitted.

Embargo: allowable embargo periods are:

• for outputs submitted to main panels A and B: six months, reduced from 12 months
• for outputs submitted to main panels C and D: 12 months, reduced from 24 months

Policy exceptions

A number of policy exceptions have been agreed. Where one or more of these exceptions applies, the output concerned will be exempt from the open access requirements.

Deposit exceptions: the following exceptions apply where the output is unable to meet the deposit requirements. In these cases, the output will not be required to meet any of the open access criteria (deposit, discovery or access requirements).

• It would be unlawful to deposit, or request the deposit of, the output or to otherwise make this available.
• The publication actively disallows open access deposit in a repository and was the most appropriate publication for the output.
• Subject to delay in securing the final peer-reviewed text for deposit – for instance, where a paper has multiple authors.

Access exceptions: the following exceptions apply where deposit of the output is possible, but there are issues to do with meeting one or more of the accessibility, embargo and /or licensing requirements. Outputs will be exempt from the relevant requirements, but still be required to meet all other open access policy requirements.

• The publication requires an embargo period that exceeds the stated maxima and was the most appropriate publication for the output. Outputs will not need to meet the embargo requirements in this case.
• Third-party content was included for which licenses could not be obtained at a reasonable cost. The output will not need to meet access and/or licensing requirements (as relevant) in this case.

Technical exceptions: the following exceptions deal with cases where an output is unable to meet the criteria due to a technical issue. In the following cases, the output will not be required to meet the open access criteria (deposit, discovery or access requirements).

• Output has a demonstrable and substantive connection to the submitting institution but was published following the end of the author’s period of employment, and it has not been possible to determine compliance with the criteria.
• Outputs were authored in whole by one or more staff who are or were ineligible to be included in the volume measure for REF 2029. The funding bodies have agreed this exception across the publication period for REF 2029 in order to support submission of a wide range of eligible outputs.

Further exception:  “other” exception should be used where criteria beyond the control of the higher education institution (HEI) (including but not limited to: personal circumstances of the author, industrial action, closure days and software issues) prevent compliance. If ‘other’ exception is selected, the output will not need to meet the open access criteria (deposit, discovery or access requirements).

These exceptions replace those in effect up to 31 December 2025, which are set out fully in paragraph 6.

Key terms and definitions

Date of acceptance means the date given in the acceptance letter or email from the publisher to the author as the ‘firm’ accepted date.

Date of publication means the date that the final ‘version of record’ (VOR) is first made publicly available (such as on the publisher’s website). This will usually mean that any ‘early online’ date, rather than the print publication date, should be taken as the date.

Author’s accepted manuscript (AAM) refers to the final peer-reviewed text which may otherwise be known as the ‘author manuscript’, which may also be called ‘final author version’ or ‘post-print’. Pre-print versions of outputs other than where these are the AAM do not meet the requirements of this policy.

Outputs that have been provisionally accepted for publication, under the condition that the author makes revisions to the manuscript that result from peer review, are not considered as the final text.

Appropriate platforms for deposit (where applicable) include:

• an institutional repository
• a repository service shared between multiple institutions
• a subject repository
• a preprint server (provided that the version posted is the AAM of VOR)

Technical requirements – outputs published 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025

Journal articles and conference contributions published between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2025 with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) are in-scope outputs for REF 2029 and will be subject to the open access policy requirements for submission for REF 2021. These are summarised below and are in the REF 2021 policy.

Criteria for open access

• deposit requirements
• discovery requirements
• access requirements

Deposit requirements

The output must have been deposited in an appropriate platform (see paragraph 5.0.5.).

The output must be deposited as soon after the date of acceptance as possible and no later than three months after this date.

Outputs that are made open access through the ‘gold’ route, at the point of first publication, in accordance with other funder’s requirements and definitions, meet the requirement of the REF 2021 open access policy. HEIs will need to confirm that outputs were available immediately after publication via the gold route.

Where a deposited output is later replaced or augmented following its initial deposit, the updated manuscript may be deposited in place of the originally deposited output.

Discovery requirements

The output must be discoverable by readers and automated tools such as search engines.

Discovery requirements are typically fulfilled through storage and open presentation of a bibliographic or metadata record on a publisher/publication site, repository or other suitable platform.

Once discoverable, the output should remain so.

Where a deposited output is later replaced or augmented following initial deposit, this must also meet the discovery requirements.

Access requirements

The output must be presented in a form that allows anyone with internet access to search electronically within the text, read it and download it without charge.

Outputs whose text is encoded only as a scanned image do not meet the requirement that the text be searchable electronically.

Outputs licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Non-Derivative (CC BY-NC-ND) licence would meet the minimum requirement.

Once made fully accessible, an output should remain so.

Where a deposited output is later replaced or augmented following its initial deposit, this must also meet the access requirements. Embargo periods may not re-start with subsequent deposits, they are linked to the date of publication.

Timing of compliance with access requirements and embargo periods

The policy allows authors to respect embargo periods set by publishers of: up to 12 months for Main Panels A and B; or 24 months for Main Panels C and D. Outputs that are under embargo at the submission deadline are compliant with the policy requirements (provided that the embargo lengths are within the policy requirements).

The required timing of compliance with the access requirements depends on whether an embargo period is specified.

Where a publisher specifies an embargo period, an output will be compliant with the policy requirements where it is deposited as a ‘closed’ deposit. Closed deposits must meet the deposit and discovery requirements (unless an exception applies). The full text should be available to read and download after the embargo period has elapsed.

The routes to determine the timing of compliance with the access requirements are set out below:

• Route 1: for outputs deposited with no or ‘zero’ embargo. Where the output has no or a ‘zero’ embargo period it must meet the access requirements as soon as possible and no later than one month after deposit.
• Route 2: for outputs deposited under embargo. Where the output is deposited under embargo, it must meet the access requirements as soon as possible and no later than one month after the end of the embargo period. The embargo period typically begins at the point of first publication (including ‘early online’ publication).

Embargo periods should not exceed the following maxima:

• 12 months for Main Panel A and Main Panel B
• 24 months for Main Panel C and Main Panel D

Interdisciplinary research outputs returned in a UoA in Main Panel A or B that span boundaries with a UoA in Main Panel C or D may respect the longer of the two embargo periods.

Tolerance allowance for non-compliant outputs

A tolerance banding for submission has been agreed by the funding bodies, within which a percentage of in-scope outputs submitted by a unit are permitted to be submitted as non-compliant at no detriment to the unit’s submission.

Application of policy exceptions where appropriate are considered no-detriment. This does not impact on the permitted tolerance for non-compliant outputs. For each submission to a unit of assessment, units may submit a maximum of five (5) per cent non-compliant in-scope outputs, or one non-compliant in-scope output, whichever is higher.

The maximum of five per cent of outputs will be rounded to the nearest whole output number.

HEIs will be able to review the percentage of listed, in-scope outputs that they have identified as not compliant, or as having an applicable exception, for each submission prior to the submission deadline.

Non-compliant outputs

If an institution wishes to proceed with a submission exceeding the tolerated proportion/number of non-compliant in-scope outputs, the institution will be invited to identify which outputs should be removed as ineligible.

An unclassified score will be added for the removed (‘missing’) outputs. Where an audit process demonstrates that outputs identified as compliant do not meet the open access requirements and exceed the tolerated proportion/number, these outputs will be removed, and an unclassified score added for the ‘missing’ outputs.

Exceptions to the open access requirements 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025

Deposit exceptions

The following exceptions deal with cases where the output is unable to meet the deposit requirements. In the following cases, the output will not be required to meet any of the open access criteria (deposit, discovery or access requirements).

At the point of acceptance, it was not possible to secure the use of a repository.

There was a delay in securing the final peer-reviewed text (for instance, where a paper has multiple authors).

The staff member to whom the output is attributed was not employed on a volume contributing eligible contract by a UK HEI at the time of submission for publication.

It would be unlawful to deposit, or request the deposit of, the output.

Depositing the output would present a security risk. 

Access exceptions

The following exceptions deal with cases where deposit of the output is possible, but there are issues to do with meeting the access requirements. In the following cases, the output will still be required to meet the deposit and discovery requirements, but not the access requirements. A closed-access deposit, where allowed, will be required.

The output depends on the reproduction of third-party content for which open access rights could not be granted (either within the specified timescales, or at all).

The publication concerned requires an embargo period that exceeds the stated maxima and was the most appropriate publication for the output.

The publication concerned actively disallows open-access deposit in a repository and was the most appropriate publication for the output.

Technical exceptions

The following exceptions deal with cases where an output is unable to meet the criteria due to a technical issue. In the following cases, the output will not be required to meet the open access criteria (deposit, discovery or access requirements).

At the point of acceptance, the staff member to whom the output is attributed was employed at a different UK HEI, and it has not been possible to determine compliance with the criteria.

The repository experienced a short-term or transient technical failure that prevented compliance with the criteria (this should not apply to systemic issues).

An external service provider failure prevented compliance (for instance, a subject repository did not enable open access at the end of the embargo period, or a subject repository ceased to operate).

Further exceptions

‘Other exception’ should be used where an output is unable to meet the criteria due to circumstances beyond the control of the HEI, including extenuating personal circumstances of the author (such as periods of extended leave), industrial action, closure days, and software problems beyond those listed in the technical exceptions. If ‘other’ exception is selected, the output will not need to meet the open access criteria (deposit, discovery or access requirements).

The output was not deposited within three months of acceptance date but was deposited within three months of the earliest date of publication. In this instance, the output will need to meet all other policy requirements.

Additional exception for REF 2029 submission

This exemption addresses the submission of outputs authored by non-volume contributing staff. Under the submission rules for REF 2029 it is permissible for such outputs to be submitted as part of a unit’s submission to REF. This was not the case in REF 2021 and there would have been no expectation or anticipation on the part of non-volume contributing staff that they should need to ensure open access compliance.

Outputs were authored in whole by one or more staff who are or were ineligible to be included in the volume measure for REF 2029.

Technical requirements – outputs published from 1 January 2026

The revised policy requirements for REF 2029 will come into force for all journal articles and conference contributions in-scope for this policy from 1 January 2026.

Journal articles and conference contributions (with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) published between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2028 are in-scope outputs for REF 2029 and will be subject to the revised open access policy requirements for submission for REF in effect from 1 January 2026.

Open access requirements

• publication and/or deposit requirements
• discovery requirements
• access requirements including:
  • licensing
  • embargo periods

Publication and/or deposit requirements

Published open access: where an output is made fully open access on publication (commonly termed ’Gold‘ open access, also ’Diamond‘ or ’Platinum‘), conditional to its also fully meeting discovery and access criteria there is no further action required.

Such outputs will be considered as fully meeting open access criteria for submission to REF 2029.

Published subject to embargo: where an output is subject to an allowable embargo requirement (see paragraph 7.6), a copy of such outputs should be deposited in a suitable repository or other appropriate platform within three months of publication.

This represents a minimum standard for compliance. The funding bodies support deposit of embargoed materials at an earlier stage, for instance, where established institutional practice and systems are in place for deposit on acceptance. If institutions wish to continue or implement deposit on acceptance this can be done at no detriment.

The deposited output should be either the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) or where permitted under publication agreement, the final Version of Record (VOR). 

Upon expiry of the applicable embargo period, the output should be made fully accessible, meeting discovery and accessibility requirements.

Where a deposited output is later replaced or augmented following its initial deposit, the updated manuscript may be deposited in place of the originally deposited output.

Discovery requirements

The output must be discoverable by readers and automated tools such as search engines.

Discovery requirements are typically fulfilled through storage and open presentation of a bibliographic or metadata record on a publisher/publication site, repository or other suitable platform.

Once discoverable, the output should remain so.

Where a deposited output is later replaced or augmented following initial deposit, this must also meet the discovery requirements.

Access requirements

The output must be presented in a form that allows anyone with internet access to search electronically within the text, read it and download it without charge.

The output must be fully accessible at the expiry of any required embargo period.

Once made fully accessible, an output should remain so.

Licensing requirements

Outputs (in-scope outputs) submitted to REF 2029 must be published under appropriate licensing for meeting open access requirements and which allow for free access, sharing and reuse of published materials.

The funding bodies do not mandate any specific license format or standard and recognise that researchers and institutions may choose from a variety of open licensing formats suitable for their output subject to meeting minimum standards identified.

Outputs should be licensed as openly as possible; the funding bodies’ strong preference is for licensing as CC-BY or other license formats meeting this standard of openness. However, licensing outputs at CC-BY-NC or CC-BY-ND (including CC-BY-NC-ND) or licenses meeting an equivalent standard of openness are also permitted.

Embargo periods

The policy allows authors to respect embargo periods set by publishers of: up to 6 months for Main Panels A and B; or 12 months for Main Panels C and D. Outputs that are under embargo at the submission deadline are compliant with the policy requirements (provided that the embargo lengths are within the policy requirements).

The required timing of compliance with the access requirements depends on whether an embargo period is specified.

Where a publisher specifies an embargo period, the full text must be made available to read and download after the embargo period has elapsed.

Embargo periods should not exceed the following maxima:

• 6 months for Main Panel A and Main Panel B.
• 12 months for Main Panel C and Main Panel D.

Interdisciplinary research outputs returned in a UoA in Main Panel A or B that span boundaries with a UoA in Main Panel C or D may respect the longer of the two embargo periods.

Non-compliance with open access requirements

Where an output does not meet these conditions without being subject to one of the permitted policy exceptions, it will be considered as non-compliant with the open access policy for purposes of REF submission.

Tolerance allowance for non-compliant outputs

A tolerance banding for submission has been agreed by the funding bodies, within which a percentage of in-scope outputs submitted by a unit are permitted to be submitted as non-compliant at no detriment to the unit’s submission.

Application of policy exceptions where appropriate are considered no-detriment. This does not impact on the permitted tolerance for non-compliant outputs.

For each submission to a unit of assessment, units may submit a maximum of five (5) per cent non-compliant in-scope outputs, or one non-compliant in-scope output, whichever is higher.

The maximum of five per cent of outputs will be rounded to the nearest whole output number.

HEIs will be able to review the percentage of listed, in-scope outputs that they have identified as not compliant, or as having an applicable exception, for each submission prior to the submission deadline.

Non-compliant outputs

If an institution wishes to proceed with a submission exceeding the tolerated proportion/number of non-compliant in-scope outputs, the institution will be invited to identify which outputs should be removed as ineligible.

An unclassified score will be added for the removed (‘missing’) outputs. Where an audit process demonstrates that outputs identified as compliant do not meet the open access requirements and exceed the tolerated proportion/number, these outputs will be removed, and an unclassified score added for the ‘missing’ outputs.

Policy exceptions

The funding bodies recognise that there are circumstances due to which it may mean that an output otherwise eligible for submission to REF 2029 will not be able to meet open access requirements. Consequently, there have been agreed the following allowable exceptions from the open access policy.

Where one or more of these exceptions applies, the output concerned will be exempt from the applicable open access criteria. In their submissions HEIs must clearly identify where an exception is considered to apply, and the applicable exception being applied.

Exceptions relate to deposit, access, licensing and/or technical issues relating to the output, and to other issues beyond the control of the output’s author or the submitting HEI.

Permitted exceptions from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028

Deposit exceptions

The following exceptions apply where the output is unable to meet the deposit requirements. In these cases, the output will not be required to meet any of the open access criteria (deposit, discovery or access requirements).

It would be unlawful to deposit, or request the deposit of, the output or to otherwise make this available.

The publication actively disallows open access deposit in a repository and was the most appropriate publication for the output.

Subject to delay in securing the final peer-reviewed text for deposit – for instance, where a paper has multiple authors.

Access exceptions

The following exceptions apply where deposit of the output is possible, but there are issues to do with meeting one or more of the accessibility, embargo and/or licensing requirements. Outputs will be exempt from the relevant requirements, but still be required to meet all other open access policy requirements.

The publication requires an embargo period that exceeds the stated maxima and was the most appropriate publication for the output. Outputs will not need to meet the embargo requirements in this case.

Third-party content was included for which licenses could not be obtained at a reasonable cost. The output will not need to meet access and/or licensing requirements (as relevant) in this case.

Technical exceptions

The following exceptions deal with cases where an output is unable to meet the criteria due to a technical issue. In the following cases, the output will not be required to meet the open access criteria (deposit, discovery or access requirements).

Output has a demonstrable and substantive connection to the submitting institution but was published following the end of the author’s period of employment, and it has not been possible to determine compliance with the criteria.

Outputs were authored in whole by one or more staff who are or were ineligible to be included in the volume measure for REF 2029. The funding bodies have agreed this exception across the publication period for REF 2029 in order to support submission of a wide range of eligible outputs.

Further exception

“Other” exception should be used where criteria beyond the control of the higher education institution (HEI) (including but not limited to: personal circumstances of the author, industrial action, closure days and software issues) prevent compliance. If ‘other’ exception is selected, the output will not need to meet the open access criteria (deposit, discovery or access requirements).

Audit

The full audit guidance for REF 2029 is being developed. For open access, audit processes will broadly mirror the risk-based approach for REF 2021, subject to further review and potential adjustments. Additionally, audits may be conducted for other reasons (for instance, as a result of panel-instigated audit).

The initial audit approach seeks to identify overall compliance with open access, focusing on instances where more than 5% of outputs are outside the requirements with no suitable exception, subject to refinements as guidelines and requirements evolve.

A risk-based ranking is planned to assess open access availability of submitted outputs, their searchability, and compliance with publication and deposit requirements. The ranking method and criteria may be refined as further details are developed.

The use of the “Other” exception as a high proportion of all exceptions is likely to result in a higher risk score, though this criterion may be adjusted based on future evaluations.

• Deposit, access and technical exceptions may be applied as appropriate to the circumstances and will not affect risk scores.

If a high risk is determined, audit will focus on an institution’s processes using evidence provided by the institution to determine if open access compliance is effectively managed. This focus may be adjusted as necessary.

• In REF 2021, 10 institutions’ submissions were selected for the second stage of the audit process, based on risk. In total, four data adjustments were required through the audit process.

If a robust and well managed approach is not evidenced, substantive sampling may be undertaken on a set of outputs returned as compliant, but which are potentially not. Evidence required may be at the level of individual outputs, including justification for any decision to use the “other” exception.

• Three institutions were selected for substantive sampling in REF 2021.

If non-compliant outputs exceed 5% with no suitable exception, these will be identified to the institution. This threshold may be reviewed and adjusted as necessary.

• One institution was required to adjust their submission by one output in REF 2021.

Outputs made fully open access on publication are immediately compliant.