UKRI’s Open Access policy published March 2022 applies to:

• journal articles and conference proceedings submitted for publication on or after 1 April 2022
• monographs, book chapters and edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024

If you submit articles for publication before 1 April 2022, you must follow the existing research councils’ policy on open access and supporting guidance.

There is a strong indication that a new Open Access policy for the REF, due to be published in 2024, will mirror this new UKRI policy and will align with Plan S.

Articles and conference proceedings submitted on or after 1 April 2022 must be Open Access immediately upon publication.

In addition:

• you can no longer apply an embargo to your Author Accepted Manuscripts deposited in KAR
• add this UKRI statement to your author accepted manuscript (AAM) before submission: 'For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence (where permitted by UKRI, an Open Government Licence or CC BY ND public copyright licence may be used instead) to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising'. This applies to all AAMs and is your ‘safety net’, it ensures that your article will comply
• the UKRI Open Access block grant that the University receives cannot be used to pay for APCs to make individual articles Open Access in hybrid journals
• you must apply a CC BY licence to your article (with CC BY ND allowed in some exceptional cases)
• you must create a Data Access Statement, even where there are no data associated with the article or the data are inaccessible
• MRC and BBSRC biomedical research articles that acknowledge this funding will be archived in Europe PubMed Central
• articles can include third-party materials (such as images, photographs or maps) that are subject to a more restrictive licence.

• Can you benefit from our Read and Publish agreements?
• Will you be able to get funding for an APC?
• Or will you need to rely on deposit in KAR?

Follow the workflow recommended in our Check before you choose - how to comply with the UKRI Open Access policy document. This will help you work out the answers to these questions. 

This document is a form which you use to select answers to questions. Your responses will not be monitored and the form is for your use only.

Books, chapters or edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024 must be Open Access or available in a repository (eg KAR) within 12 months of publication.

Read the full UKRI Open Access Policy  and see UKRI’s guidance and resources and UKRI’s Open Access Policy: FAQs.

Case studies, author experiences of OA book publishing and further resources are available on our Open Access Books page.    

• UKRI require books and book chapters to be free to view, and download, from a website within 12 months of publication 
• This can be achieved by depositing the accepted version in KAR (at no cost) OR by making the published version freely available on the publisher website (this usually involves a cost)
• The policy applies to research monographs, book chapters and edited collections.
  The following are excluded: Text books, trade books, scholarly editions, exhibition catalogues and all types of fictional works and creative writing.
  See Annex 1 of the UKRI Open Access Policy for information on policy definitions and items in scope  
• The policy applies to outputs arising from pre-existing and closed awards if they are published on or after 1 January 2024 and within seven years of the formal end of the award
• The output must be published under a Creative Commons Licence. A CC BY licence is preferred but any Creative Commons licence is permitted. If you are using third party content in your publication, it is possible to include it under a different licence or under an 'all rights reserved' basis
• Limited exceptions are permitted see UKRI Open Access Policy annex 3 for details.
  Please work with our Open Research Team researchsupport@kent.ac.uk to discuss and record an exception

UKRI are providing central funding for in scope outputs via a staged process: 

• Stage 1 - The library makes a stage 1 application to UKRI on behalf of the Kent author to confirm eligibility for the central funding 
• Stage 2 - The library pays the publisher’s invoice and then makes a claim to recover costs from UKRI 

The maximum amounts that UKRI will cover are:  

• £10,000 per book or edited collection 
• £1,000 per chapter 

Up to £2,000 of these amounts can be payments for third-party copyright clearance. You cannot claim for additional payments on top of the £10,000 or £1,000 limit.

• When considering a publisher, inform them that your publication is in scope of the UKRI open access policy and check if they can offer a compliant open access publishing option 
• Complete and submit our Open Access Longform funding application form. The Open Research Team will then contact you 
• Be aware of the need to make your work openly available online when dealing with third party content that you wish to include in your publication.  When seeking permission to use third party copyright material, state that it will be available online.  Use the UKRI guide  Managing third-party copyright for research publications:  A good practice guide for researchers publishing open access monographs and book chapters  
• Find out what your publisher can do for you and how you can make the most of OA
  - Consider the opportunity to link to or include multimedia outputs
  - Ask about translations 
  -Will your output be available in print format as well as OA online?
  -What will they do for you in terms of marketing?
  -What will they do for you in terms of measuring impact/use?  

• Keep a digital copy of the Author Accepted Manuscript version of your work and deposit it in KAR upon acceptance. Contact researchsupport@kent.ac.uk and we will help you assign the appropriate embargo. This may be sufficient to meet the requirements
• Ensure you include acknowledgement of UKRI funding in your manuscript. Below is an example and suggested format: 

This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), grant number ES/X000000/1

• If you believe that it will not be possible for you to publish your output Open Access, contact the Open Research Team researchsupport@kent.ac.uk to discuss this.

Need research support or advice? Email researchsupport@kent.ac.uk

Frequently asked questions

For further information see UKRI New Open Access Policy: Any Questions? which answers your questions about the UKRI policy changes. 

Find out all the ways you can get in touch.