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“Open Access research brings benefits to researchers, students, institutions, governments, public bodies, professionals and practitioners, citizen scientists and many others”.
What's next after REF 2021?
The Open Access Policy for REF 2029 was published on 11 Dec 2024. Key points:
- From 1 Jan 2026, journal articles must be deposited in an institutional repository within 3 months of publication.
- From 1 Jan 2026, the maximum permitted embargo on journal articles made open access through institutional repositories ('green' OA) will be 6 months for Panels A & B, and 12 months for Panels C & D.
- A CC-BY licence or equivalent is "preferred"; -NC and -ND extensions are "acceptable".
- The Policy will not apply to longform outputs (books, book chapters etc).
Further guidance for Hull authors about how to comply with the Policy will be provided here shortly.
REF 2021 Open Access Policy
Research England's REF 2021 Guidance on Submissions addressed Open Access in paragraphs 105-114 and 223-255.
Key Points
- In order to be eligible for submission to REF 2021, all journal articles and conference papers published in a journal must be deposited in an insitutional or subject-based repository (such as Worktribe) within 3 months of the date of acceptance for publication.
- The author's accepted manuscript, or the published version, must be open access as soon as possible after the date of publication: no later than 12 months for REF Panels A&B (STEM) , and 24 months for Panels C&D (AHSS).
- Open access can be achieved through Gold or Green routes. Research England has not expressed any preference for 'gold'; there is no expectation that authors will pay to publish.
- The work must be made available with an open licence (such as Creative Commons), downloadable, and machine readable.
- Research England has agreed a list of exceptions to the policy, where an author or institution is unable to meet the criteria for deposit or access to articles. At the University of Hull, Associate Deans for Research have oversight of the use of exceptions.
- Institutions which demonstrate engagement with open access beyond the minimum specifications of the policy may be rewarded through their Research Environment score.
If your research output relates to a funded project, your funder's criteria for open access may be more stringent than the REF. Check your funder's terms.
University of Hull process for complying with REF Open Access criteria
Pending publication of the REF 2029 Open Access Policy, the process developed for REF 2021 remains valid.
Journal articles which are not 'gold' open access can be made eligible through the 'green' route, or by claiming an exception. It is not necessary to pay for open access publishing in order to meet REF criteria.
It is the author's responsibility to ensure that their output records in Worktribe are up-to-date:
- Don't leave records in progress, as this risks failure to comply with REF 'deposit' criteria
- If you have any questions about actions required on specific Worktribe records, use the record 'Comments' tab (tag your comment '@Library'), or contact worktribe@hull.ac.uk
- Refer to the Worktribe Sharepoint site for guides and FAQs
Researchers are requested to introduce new colleagues to Worktribe and direct them to the Sharepoint site for help getting started.
This is a simplified representation of the process of depositing a journal article in Worktribe for University of Hull authors. Not every scenario is captured by this visualisation.
Who Can Help?
Library staff responsible for managing the University's Research Repository can answer queries about output records in Worktribe: worktribe@hull.ac.uk
The University's Research and Innovation Office has overall responsibility for managing the institutional submission.
