In August 2021, following consultation with the research community and publishers, UKRI announced its new open access policy for research publications that acknowledge funding from one of its councils. Full details can be found at https://www.ukri.org/publications/ukri-open-access-policy. This policy is in line with Plan S principles agreed by the cOAlition S group of funders of which UKRI is a member.
UKRI’s updated policy will require:
- immediate open access on publication to peer-reviewed research articles submitted for publication after 1 April 2022.
- open access within 12 months of publication for monographs, book chapters and edited collections published from 1 January 2024.
Compliance can be achieved by the author making either the version of record or the accepted, peer-reviewed manuscript immediately open access under a CC-BY licence. A new Open Access policy for the next REF is also under development and is expected to mirror the UKRI policy.
