What should I do if I miss the window to deposit my work for REF OA compliance?
Answer
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) requires that authors deposit a copy of their outputs to an approved repository within three months of publication, however there are exceptions to this policy. These exceptions are decided by the REF and have not been officially released for the 2029 exercise yet.
Even if you have missed the three-month window your output may still be eligible for submission to the next REF if it qualifies for one of these exceptions. There are several exceptions, including:
-
No authors were employed on an eligible contract by a UK HEI (Higher Education Institution) at the point of acceptance
-
The output is a conference proceeding which falls outside the REF definition
Members of the Library team can assess the exception criteria and if appropriate apply an exception, so authors should still contact us and, where possible, deposit their manuscripts so that we may investigate.
Further support
Need any help? You can find more articles about other Open Access-related topics or get in touch with the team.