This page will help you to comply with:
Use the tabs below to find out about the requirements of the policies that are relevant to you.
See the Paying for Open Access page to access Open Access funds from your funder.
This requirement applies to all research staff and research students.
This applies to research books, monographs, book chapters and edited collections. When choosing your publisher consider Open Access options to make your publications as open as possible as soon as possible for the greatest reach and impact. This is mandatory if required by your external funder and will be a requirement for the REF that follows REF 2029.
Where possible, choose publishers that offer an Open Access route. This is mandatory if you are in receipt of external funding and if the funder requires Open Access for longform publications.
Routes to Open Access include:
If your chosen publisher charges an Open Access publishing fee and you have access to funds to pay this you should choose this route. Publish Open Access under any Creative Commons licence. CC BY is preferred but a more restrictive licence such as CC BY NC, CC BY ND or CC BY NC ND is permitted. Open Government licences are also permitted. However, if you are externally funded you will need to choose the licence specified by the funder.
You must acknowledge the source of the funding for the Open Access fee
If you do not have access to funds to cover Open Access publishing charges, you will usually need to publish traditionally in hard copy and then deposit in CentAUR as much of the AAM as permitted by the publisher. This may be up to a single chapter from the book.
For both of the above routes, access to your longform publication must be enabled via CentAUR. If published Open Access, add a metadata record and upload the Publisher's PDF. If published traditionally, add a metadata record and upload the percentage of the AAM that is permitted by your publisher.
The above policy for longform publications is currently in draft and will be added to the University's current Open Access policy (which applies only to journals) when it is revised in 2025
The REF which follows REF 2029 will require books, chapters and edited collections to be Open Access. It is important for researchers to plan for this now for outputs that will be published in the post-REF 2029 period.
There is no requirement for monographs, books, edited collections or book chapters to be made Open Access for REF 2029.
The REF 2021 Open Access policy for journal articles and conference proceedings continues to apply until superseded by the REF 2029 Open Access policy. This will be announced in late 2024 and will be implemented no earlier than 1 January 2026.
The UKRI policy for Open Access monographs, book chapters and edited collections came into effect on 1st January 2024. It applies to authors whose publications result from projects funded by:
The policy requirement does not apply to recipients of UKRI Training Grants or to outputs acknowledging only the use of UKRI funded facilities.
Annex 1 of the policy clarifies which types of book are within the scope of the policy and which are not. For example, text books, fictional works and most trade books are out of scope.
You should choose a publisher with Open Access options that allow you to comply with the following criteria. You can request funds from UKRI for Open Access publishing charges up to £10,000 (including VAT) for books or £1,000 (including VAT) for chapters.
To request UKRI funds go to:
If you think that you need to apply an exemption please contact oarequests@reading.ac.uk for advice. Authors are expected to follow UKRI guidance on the permitted exemption and to work with their organisation to make a decision. The process for applying an exemption is self-managed and trust-based. No approval is needed but UKRI expects authors or institutions to notify them when an exemption is applied. The UKRI exemptions notification form can be completed by the author but it is preferable for the Library to complete this for you. Please contact oarequests@reading.ac.uk to request this.
Annex 3 of the policy provides further guidance on exemptions.
UKRI requires a Creative Commons licence to be applied to the book, chapter or edited collection. CC BY is preferred but any Creative Commons licence is permitted. An Open Government Licence is permitted when authors are subject to Crown Copyright.
For any third-party content within copyright, only include the content under the licence or terms under which the rightsholder has released it.
UKRI's licensing requirements do not apply to any materials included within a long-form output that are provided by third-party copyright holders. Academic books published under a CC BY, or other creative commons licence may include third-party materials (such as images, photographs, diagrams or maps) which are subject to a more restrictive licence. UKRI considers this approach compliant with its policy.
UKRI recognises that there may be some instances where permissions for reuse in an Open Access book cannot be obtained for all third-party images or other materials. Therefore, an exception to the policy may be applied when reuse permissions for third-party materials cannot be obtained and there is no suitable alternative option available to enable Open Access publication.
The Horizon Europe (2021-2027) Open Science policy applies to researchers in receipt of funding from Horizon Europe funding, including, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) and European Research Council (ERC) funding.
Long-form, peer reviewed text outputs. These include peer reviewed books, monographs and edited volumes. Chapters are not considered to be long-form outputs in Horizon Europe and are treated similarly to journal articles
Your should choose a publisher that has Open Access options that allow you to comply with the following criteria. Open Access publication costs can be paid from the grant but must be claimed within its lifetime.
Alternatively, you can publish on ORE (Open Research Europe), an Open Access publishing venue for European Commission-funded researchers across all disciplines, with no author fees. Publication on ORE automatically satisfies all Open Access requirements of the policy.
Grant recipients whose publications include original research that is funded in whole, or in part, by Wellcome. The overarching aim of the Wellcome Trust Open Access policy is to make sure that knowledge and discoveries resulting from Wellcome Trust funding are shared and used in a way that maximises their benefit to health.
All original scholarly monographs and book chapters authored or co-authored by Wellcome grantholders as part of their grant-funded research.
You should choose a publisher that has Open Access options that allow you to comply with the following criteria. The monograph or chapter should be:
Wellcome Trust funding is available to cover publishers' Open Access monograph and book chapter processing charges.
The Leverhulme Trust does not have a mandate for Open Access and has made no stipulations regarding mandatory archiving or Open Access publication for grant holders (last checked September 2024).
It is possible to include Open Access charges in your budget when you apply for funding from the Trust. If you need help in estimating book/chapter Open Access costs for planned outputs, please contact the oarequests team.
The Open Access charges must be incurred during the period of the grant. If the costs are not incurred during the life of the grant, funds allocated for Open Access must be returned to the Trust.
Many funders and sponsors have requirements or have expressed a preference that research publications resulting from their grants are made Open Access. The agreements that you have signed will specifiy what you need to do.
Use the Sherpa Juliet tool to find summaries of funders' Open Access requirements and for a link to their policies.