Research Excellence Framework Open Access policy
Answer
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the UK’s system for assessing the excellence of research in UK higher education providers (HEIs). Research England manages the REF on behalf of all four UK higher education funding bodies. The next exercise is planned for 2029.
This policy affects submissions to the next REF exercise. It is a Green Open Access (OA) policy and authors are not required to pay Article Processing Charges (APCs) to publishers to comply with the policy.
What the policy says that, to be eligible for submission to the REF, all journal articles and peer-reviewed conference papers must be:
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deposited in an approved repository within three months of publication
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subsequently made OA
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papers can be embargoed for up to 6 months for REF Panels A (Medicine, Health and Life Sciences) & B (Physical Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics) or 12 months for REF Panels C (Social Sciences) & D (Arts and Humanities)
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papers not deposited within the three month timeframe may qualify for one of the exceptions set by REF. Authors should contact us and, where possible, still deposit their manuscripts so that the Library may investigate.
Author actions
On acceptance, deposit the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) to Pure via the Open Access Gateway.
Papers published Gold OA automatically meet the policy requirements. Authors wishing to request institutional funding to cover Gold OA costs should use the OA Gateway to do so. For more speculative requests author should use the OA enquiry form.
Other REF-related articles
What should I do if I miss the window to deposit my work?
Further support
Need any help? You can find more articles about other Open Access-related topics or get in touch with the team.