UKRI’s new Open Access policy:
Action for authors
What’s changing?
From 1 April 2022, UKRI-funded authors need to arrange for journal articles to contain a Data Access Statement, and be published immediately Open Access, with no embargo, under a CC BY licence.
What do authors need to do?
When preparing UKRI-funded journal articles or conference proceedings for submission from 1 April 2022, authors must ensure that each paper:
- contains a Data Access Statement;
- can be made available immediately Open Access under a CC BY licence.
The simplest way for UKRI-funded authors to ensure that research outputs meet the requirements of the funder’s new policy is to include two statements in manuscripts to be submitted for publication. Follow the links to find out more about these statements:
Most Manchester authors won't need to take additional action as a result of this new policy, aside from ensuring inclusion of the Data Access Statement, as it will be possible to publish papers immediately 'Gold' Open Access as before.
Inclusion of the Licence statement will support authors complying with UKRI's policy via 'Green' Open Access (self-archiving - compliance route 4), as when doing so, accepted manuscripts must now be shared via Pure immediately upon publication. This is different to UKRI's previous policy, which allowed an embargo period of up to 24 months.
Please note: Regardless of Open Access compliance route, biomedical research articles that acknowledge MRC or BBSRC funding are required to be archived in Europe PubMed Central, in accordance with MRC’s Additional Terms and Conditions and BBSRC’s Safeguarding Good Research Policy. Please see the 'Policies' section of the Library’s Understanding Open Access webpage.
When preparing UKRI-funded research articles for submission, authors must ensure that the paper contains a Data Access Statement.
This requirement applies even where there are no data associated with the article, or the data are inaccessible.
The Data Access Statement informs readers where the underlying research materials associated with a paper are available, and how the research materials can be accessed. The statement can include links to the dataset, where applicable and appropriate.
The Library provides guidance on preparing and including a Data Access Statement, including example statements that you may wish to use or adapt based on the nature of the data being described. You can find out more via the Library’s Data Access Statements webpage, or by contacting the Library’s Research Data Management team.
Open Access
UKRI-funded authors will be able to comply with UKRI’s policy through four possible routes, depending on the journal in which they plan to publish. Manchester Corresponding Authors will be able to follow routes 1 or 2 for around 75% of papers:
Route 1: Publish in a fully open access journal or platform
Use the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) to identify fully Open Access journals in your discipline.
Prior to submission, check that the Library can cover the associated Article Processing Charge (APC) for your preferred OA journal.
Use the Open Access enquiry form
Route 2: Publish in a subscription journal that is covered by a Transformative Agreement
Prior to submission, check that the University has an active Transformative Agreement with your preferred publisher, and that your preferred journal is covered under this agreement
Use the Library’s Transformative Agreement webpage.
Route 3: Publish in a subscription journal which has been granted ‘Transformative Journal’ status by UKRI
Prior to submission, check that Library can cover the associated Article Processing Charge (APC) for your preferred ‘Transformative Journal’
Use the Open Access enquiry form
Route 4: Publish in a subscription journal that is not covered by a Transformative Agreement, and make the accepted manuscript available in Pure, under the CC BY licence, on publication
Papers accepted from March 1st 2023 benefit from the University's revised Institutional Publications Policy. This means that accepted manuscripts can be made available in Pure, under the CC BY licence, on publication, irrespective of publisher embargo policies.
For more details on each of these compliance routes, and examples of journals which require compliance via each, please see Open Access compliance routes: examples
As UKRI-funded authors must ensure that journal articles and conference proceedings arising from funded work are made Open Access under the CC BY licence immediately upon publication, it is advisable to include the following licence statement when preparing ALL manuscripts for submission.
Inclusion of this statement should ensure that authors can meet their funder’s requirements if they need to follow route 4: sharing a paper via Pure upon publication.
Authors who follow routes 1, 2 or 3 won’t rely on inclusion of this licence statement, but as publication plans may change, the Library recommends that this statement is included in all papers which acknowledge UKRI funding.
Licence statement wording
For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence (where permitted by UKRI, ‘Open Government Licence’ or ‘Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence may be stated instead) to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising
Authors should add this licence statement to the funding acknowledgement section of manuscripts prepared for submission, and any cover letter/note accompanying the submission.
More information and support
The Library is providing online drop-in clinics for authors to ask questions and discuss any concerns with the Library’s Open Access team. Use the following webpage to find details of upcoming clinics:
The following webpages provides more detailed information on the policy and guidance on non-standard scenarios that some authors may encounter when seeking to publish papers in accordance with the policy’s requirements:
You can also contact the Library’s Open Access team for more information and guidance.
Drop in clinics
Details of weekly online Q&A sessions hosted by the Library.
Read more
Further details
More detailed information on the new policy, including different compliance routes available.
Read more
Troubleshooting
Guidance on scenarios where compliance with the new policy may be less straightforward.
Read more