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These pages are designed to help UCL researchers understand the requirements of the UKRI open access policy for different types of publication.
The UKRI open access policy applies to research papers and long-form publications funded by the UK Research Councils (AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, STFC), Innovate UK, and Research England (funding leading directly to particular research outputs only).
Peer-reviewed research papers
UKRI-funded research papers must be made open access immediately upon publication, with the Creative Commons CC BY licence. BBSRC and MRC also require final published open access versions to be deposited in Europe PMC. This applies to peer-reviewed research articles, reviews and conference papers that acknowledge funding from UKRI, and are published in a journal or conference proceeding with an International Standards Serial Number (ISSN) number.
Gold open access
Papers published Gold/fully open access with a CC BY licence comply with UKRI's policy.
- UKRI-funded papers with UCL corresponding authors can be published with Gold open access in journals included in UCL’s transformative agreements, and will comply with UKRI's policy.
- Funding is available for research articles in fully open access journals, whether or not they are in one of UCL's agreements.
See our step-by-step guide for information about publishing with Gold open access.
Rights retention
Where a paper is not published Gold/fully open access, the author must use rights retention to apply the CC BY licence to their accepted manuscript version, which must then be deposited in RPS for immediate Green open access (BBSRC and MRC funded manuscripts must also be made available Europe PMC immediately upon publication). See our step-by-step guide for how to retain your rights.
Licence exceptions
UKRI may grant permission to use the more restrictive CC BY-ND licence for research papers on a case-by-case basis. This applies to Gold/fully open access papers, and manuscripts made open access with rights retention. Requests for this licence exception must be made using UKRI's CC BY-ND request form before publication.
Monographs, book chapters and edited collections
Monographs, book chapters and edited collections published on or after 01 January 2024 must be made open access no later than 12 months after publication under CC BY or another CC licence. For more information see our UKRI monographs, book chapters, and edited collections page.