UKRI – articles
UKRI (EPSRC, BBSRC, MRC, NERC, STFC, ESRC, AHRC, Innovate UK) for articles submitted on or after 1 April 2022
This page covers UKRI’s policy on journal articles. For the UKRI policy applying to monographs, book chapters and edited collections published from 1 January 2024, see UKRI monograph policy.
Policy
Publish in a journal or publishing platform that makes the published version immediately available with a CC BY license via its website
or
publish in a subscription journal and make the accepted manuscript (or published version where permitted) open access on publication with a CC BY license in a repository.
Routes to meeting open access requirements
Route 1 GOLD Publish in a fully open access journal, or gold open access in a hybrid journal, see “paying for gold open access” as UKRI will not usually pay for this option in hybrid journals. Please refer to the section below regarding "mirror journals”.
OR
Route 2 GREEN Publish in a subscription journal and deposit the author’s accepted manuscript (or published version where permitted by publisher) in a repository to be made available on publication. Rights retention under Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access policy, or the inclusion of a Rights Retention Statement (see below), ensures you retain the right to do this.
Spiral, the College’s digital repository, is an appropriate repository for route 2.
Biomedical articles acknowledging MRC or BBSRC must also be deposited in Europe PMC, whichever route is taken.
Check your options using the Journal Checker Tool.
Scope of policy
Funding
Authors required to acknowledge funding from UKRI or any of its constituent councils, see UKRI’s guidance on acknowledging your funding.
Article types
Peer-reviewed research articles, including reviews and conference papers, that are accepted for final publication in either a journal, conference proceeding with an International Standards Serial Number (ISSN), or publishing platform.
Examples of review articles include evidence syntheses, systematic reviews, systematic-literature reviews, analyses, meta-analyses and metasyntheses. The policy does not apply to book reviews or narrative reviews, although open access is encouraged. The policy applies to in-scope reviews that are commissioned or invited.
Conference abstracts are out of scope.
A policy for monographs, book chapters and edited collections is in place from 1 January 2024.
Paying for GOLD open access
UKRI block grant held centrally in the Library. Funded author should apply for funding via Symplectic if the relevant grant is held at Imperial. For grants held elsewhere make an application to the grant-holding institution.
Covers in-scope articles in fully open access journals and Jisc transformative journals (which have met requirements set by Jisc demonstrating their commitment to transition to fully open access).
You can also publish via route 1 GOLD where eligible for a transformative agreement see publisher agreements and discounts. To have your paper included, follow the instructions for the relevant agreement. The corresponding author needs to have an Imperial College London affiliation, and other conditions may apply.
UKRI funds cannot be used for hybrid journals that are not transformative journals or part of a transformative agreement.
No cost is associated with open access via route 2 (GREEN).
We cannot pay page, colour, or submission charges on any route.
Rights retention statement
For articles to be published under route 2 (GREEN), authors should retain the right to apply a CC BY license (or other permitted license by exception) to the accepted version of their manuscript.
Under Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access Policy this right is retained automatically for publication in journals where the publisher has been notified of our policy. A list of notified publishers is available.
If your publisher is on the list of those notified, simply deposit the accepted version of the manuscript in Spiral via Symplectic on acceptance. The open access team will make it available on publication with a CC BY license (or other license permitted by exception). If you are funded by MRC or BBSRC, you should also deposit the accepted version in Europe PubMed Central with no embargo and a CC BY license.
If your publisher has not been notified, contact openaccess@imperial.ac.uk so that we can notify them, and include the following text in the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript and any cover letter or note accompanying the submission:
‘For the purpose of open access, the author(s) 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’.
Required licence
CC BY required on all compliance routes.
CC BY ND by requesting an exception from UKRI.
OGL permitted where research article is subject to Crown Copyright.
For information see Creative Commons licenses or The anatomy of a Creative Commons License (SWAY), or Jisc’s guidance on Publishing under the UKRI open access policy: copyright and Creative Common licences.
Other requirements
Data access statement required, even if there are no underlying data. See how to write a data access statement for guidance.
Preprints are not in scope, but depositing preprints is encouraged. UKRI reserves the right to ensure their use in the context of emergencies.
Mirror journals
Mirror journals are open access versions of subscription journals.
These journals have similar aims, scope, peer review processes, and policies, with at least 50% of the board members being the same. They may be listed in DOAJ and have their own ISSN. Examples include journal titles with an X in the suffix (refer to the 2022 Jülich list for specific titles, although it may be incomplete). However, for open access funding purposes, these journals are considered 'hybrid', and open access charges cannot be paid for from the Imperial Fund, the Wellcome Trust, see Wellcome Open Access Policy 2021 FAQ (pdf) or UKRI (updated in September/October 2023). If you have submitted or been accepted in one, please contact the Library’s Open Access team.
Frequently asked questions
What is the rights retention statement for?
The statement asserts author copyright to any arising accepted manuscript (following peer review and relevant editorial processes), including the application of a CC BY licence to that accepted manuscript when deposited in a repository.
Do I need to seek permission for third party content included in my paper to be made available under a CC BY license?
No. UKRI specifies third party copyright content is not subject to its OA requirements.
What if my paper was submitted to a journal before 1 April 2022?
Papers submitted to a journal before 1 April 2022 fall under the previous UKRI open access policy. Either publish in a journal or publishing platform that makes the published version immediately available with a CC BY license via its website, or publish in a subscription journal and make the accepted manuscript (or published version where permitted) open access with an embargo of 12 months or less (6 months or less for MRC). Open access funding is available via publisher agreements, or from our UKRI block grant for fully open access journals, or hybrid journals where no compliant green open access route is available.
Will I still be able to publish in my journal of choice?
Yes. If the journal is not fully open access or part of a transitional agreement, the accepted manuscript can be deposited in Spiral to meet the requirements of the UKRI OA policy via route 2. If your publisher is not on the list of those notified of Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access Policy, you will need to include the rights retention statement on the submitted manuscript to enable this.
My journal publisher has said they will not accept the statement asserting my right to deposit the accepted version. What shall I do?
We are waiting for guidance from UKRI on publisher non-compliance to advise authors in this situation. However, we would advise that from 1 April 2022, if your publisher agreement states that you cannot deposit the accepted manuscript, please get in touch with the Open Access team as soon as possible.
I am not the corresponding author but hold UKRI research funding. How do I meet the OA policy requirements?
If the corresponding author is at another UK HEI, and the journal you are publishing in is part of a transitional agreement, it is likely the work will meet the route one requirements. This is because many UK institutions have signed and paid for the same agreements as at Imperial.
In hybrid journals not covered by a transitional agreement, Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access Policy will generally ensure you retain the rights to deposit your accepted manuscript in Spiral and meet the requirements via route 2. For publishers not notified of the policy, the rights retention statement will need to be included in the manuscript. We advise any UKRI-funded authors to discuss the OA policy requirement with their co-authors.
If you are publishing in a full OA journal which charges APCs, the UKRI open access block grant held by the College can pay the APC. You can apply for the APC to be paid via Symplectic.
My paper acknowledges both Wellcome and UKRI funding: should I use the Wellcome or UKRI rights retention statement?
You do not need to include a rights retention statement if you are publishing in a fully open access journal, or with a publisher that has been notified of Imperial’s research publications open access policy. A list of notified publishers is available.
If your publisher has not been notified, please contact openaccess@imperial.ac.uk so that we can notify them, and include a rights retention statement. It doesn’t matter whether you use Wellcome or UKRI’s wording for the statement, as both have the same purpose, which is to tell your publisher that you are asserting your right (and your co-authors’ right, where relevant) to make the accepted manuscript available on open access without embargo.
My article will be published open access as part of a transformative agreement. Do I need to request open access funding via Symplectic?
No. If your publisher tells you (or the corresponding author) that your article will be published as part of a transformative agreement, you do not need to request an APC to be paid. We do still need you to link grant funding to that article in Symplectic.
I am submitting my manuscript to a journal which has a transformative agreement. Do I need to include the rights retention statement?
If your publisher is on the list of those notified of Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access Policy, you do not need to include the statement, as set out in the Rights retention statement section above. If your publisher has not been notified, we recommend you include the statement even where a journal is included in a transformative agreement. If the article cannot be included in the agreement or is not published in the journal you submitted to, the statement means you should be able to use route two (deposit in a repository) regardless of where you end up being published.
My grant started before 1 April 2022. Do I still have to comply with the policy?
Yes. The policy applies to outputs acknowledging UKRI funding, regardless of when that funding was received. If your grant period has ended and you are submitting outputs of that grant for publication from 1 April 2022, they will need to meet the requirements of the OA policy.
I am a PhD student with UKRI funding. Do I have to comply with the policy?
Yes, if you submit any outputs for publication from 1 April 2022, those need to meet the requirements of the policy.
Your thesis needs to meet the open access requirements of the College’s regulations and is not subject to the UKRI OA policy.