We are awaiting guidance for the REF 2028 open access policy for outputs, and would currently advise anyone submitting a journal article or conference paper from 1 January 2021 to follow the REF 2021 open access policy guidance. As soon as open access requirements for the REF 2028 period are available, information will be shared. If you are funded by UKRI, Wellcome Trust, BHF, CRUK and/or NIHR, please visit Research funders’ open access policies.

The existing REF open access policy (PDF) applies to all journal articles and conference papers accepted for publication from 1 January 2021. Until further notice, this policy continues to apply to journal articles and conference papers submitted for publication.

By depositing your accepted manuscript in Spiral now, your final published journal article or conference paper will be eligible for submission to REF 2028. To do this, you must upload a copy of your accepted manuscript to Symplectic, or ask a proxy to do so. The Library’s open access team will manage all accepted manuscript submissions to ensure you have provided sufficient information, and that the submitted manuscript meets the REF eligibility requirements.

If you have deposited your accepted manuscript in arXiv, you can choose to either upload the manuscript or add the arXiv link to the OA location field in Symplectic. To meet REF requirements, it must be the accepted manuscript, not the preprint, that is deposited in arXiv for this to apply and it should have been deposited prior to the date of publication. Please contact the Library’s open access team for more information.

Your final journal article or conference paper does not have to be published on ‘gold’ open access, i.e. you do not have to pay an open access fee or APC, to be eligible for REF 2028.

UKRI will be conducting a consultation, see Research Excellence Framework 2028: initial decisions and issues for further consultation (pdf) on the REF 2028 open access policy in Autumn/Winter 2023/24, to which College will respond. To find out more about how the open access policy affects you, please see our FAQs or contact the Library’s open access team.

What is the REF census period for outputs? 
Outputs produced from 1 January 2021 will be eligible for REF 2028.