We have published the full Open Access Policy for REF 2029 as well as a summary of the REF 2029 open access consultation which helped to inform it.
As we communicated in August, 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. However, the funding bodies continue to encourage institutions to make other types of outputs openly available as much as possible, where appropriate.
Longform outputs
There will be no mandate for longform outputs in REF 2029. Longform outputs are not in-scope of the policy. An open access requirement for submission of longform outputs will be in place for the next assessment exercise, with implementation no earlier than 1 January 2029.
Journal articles and conference contributions
Implementation
The implementation date for requirement changes to the REF Open Access Policy will be 1 January 2026, rather than 2025. As noted in August, this gives a clear 12-month lead-in for implementing changes and adapting systems. REF 2021 policy requirements will continue to apply for all in-scope outputs up to this date.
Deposit
The policy requirement will be for deposit post publication, (where not published fully open access), however earlier deposit is both accepted and supported. Where institutions have practices and systems in place for mandating deposit on acceptance there is no requirement to change this. The post publication deposit requirement period is now three months rather than one month as originally proposed.
Licensing
Publications should be licensed as openly as possible. The funding bodies preference is for CC-BY or other licenses conferring the same level of openness. However, licenses meeting the standards of CC-BY-NC and/or CC-BY-ND, (including CC-BY-NC-ND), are acceptable.
Embargo periods
We will continue with the proposed reductions. This decision is in the context of, and to further encourage, moves across the sector towards rights retention and exploration of open access options for publication with short/no embargo periods, which will support quicker access to research.
Exceptions
Some further exceptions have been applied and changes made to some of the proposed exceptions responding to views and information submitted to the consultation. Exceptions are set out in the policy, grouped by exception type.
Audit
While audit guidance for REF 2029 is still being developed, responses to the consultation make clear that there was a need to ensure some early guidance was given on general approach and triggers for audit. The audit approach for open access in REF 2029 will be broadly in line with that used for REF 2021. An outline of the principles for audit are set out in the revised policy.
While many of the proposed measures have been agreed and incorporated into policy, some have not been taken forward for REF 2029. These include incorporation of longform outputs, moves towards more open licensing and aligning embargo periods to the UKRI open access policy, (with the aim of improving openness across the research landscape, and support moves towards rights retention across institutions). However, these areas remain as aims for the funding bodies to progress for the future.
Steven Hill, Chair of the REF Steering Group and Research Director at Research England, said:
“This policy is the result of a meaningful consultation and our decisions reflect its findings. In doing so, we aim to have achieved an approach for REF 2029 that reflects a realistic and achievable policy for the sector and the funding bodies. Publishing it now gives a full calendar year before its implementation. We recognise the potential open access publication has to make research more efficient and impactful and I look forward to working with my team in Research England and colleagues in the funding bodies to develop policy for the next assessment exercise.”
Consultation
We have also published a summary of the consultation we ran on proposals for the REF 2029 Open Access Policy from 18 March to 17 June 2024. This included changes to the REF 2021 Open Access Policy on deposit requirements, embargo periods and licensing for journal publications. We also proposed introduction of an open access mandate for longform outputs, a direction of travel that has been signalled by the funding bodies since 2016.
We invited submissions from individuals and organisations across the sector to give their views on the proposals and identify any concerns and practical issues. We also met with sector groups representing different interests to consider differential impacts of the policy. Our aim throughout has been for the consultation to be meaningful, to assess the views and evidence submitted, and to bring these into our considerations and decision making.