In order to be eligible for submission to REF2021, 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 (social sciences and humanities).  This obligation came into force for articles accepted 1st April 2016 to date.

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, 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.