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REF2029 Open Access Policy – Act on Acceptance
The new 2029 Research Excellence Framework (REF) Open Access (OA) policy has now been published by Research England. Find out what this means for your research, and the support available from our Library Research Services team – in our new blog post from Ellie Clement, Library Academic Support Team Manager.
The 2029 REF OA policy confirms that the REF2021 OA policy rules remain in force until 31 December 2025, with the new policy covering outputs published from 1 January 2026.
The changes are listed below, but the key message continues to be:
Act on Acceptance. And deposit your Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) to the repository on acceptance. The Library Research Services team will do the rest!
If your research output is Open Access, be sure to link to the DOI or web address of the Version of Record (this is Gold Open Access). If it’s published behind a paywall or the publisher doesn’t offer open access options, we’ll help you stay compliant by either respecting embargo periods or using Rights Retention to make your work available (this is Green Open Access).
Significant changes to note:
- Outputs in-scope for the open access policy are journal articles and conference contributions that have an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) and were published between 01 January 2021 and 31 December 2028. No other output types are included.
- For all in-scope outputs submitted to REF 2029 published between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2025, the open access policy requirement for REF 2021 applies.
- Revised open access policy requirements for REF 2029 will come into force for all in-scope outputs from 01 January 2026.
- Outputs should be licensed as openly as possible; the funding bodies strong preference is for licensing as CC-BY.
- Allowable embargo periods are reduced: for outputs submitted to main panels A and B: six months, reduced from 12 months for outputs submitted to main panels C and D: 12 months, reduced from 24 months.
- Where an output is made fully open access on publication (commonly termed ’Gold‘ open access, also ’Diamond‘ or ’Platinum‘), conditional to its also fully meeting discovery and access criteria there is no further action required.
- Where an output is subject to an allowable embargo requirement, a copy of such outputs should be deposited in a suitable repository within three months of publication.
- Our work on Rights Retention will help us meet the new embargo periods, and also sits in line with the guidance:
What if it isn’t a journal or conference proceeding?
Outputs outside Journals and conference proceedings can still be submitted to the REF but they do not have to comply with the Open Access Policy.
Some funded research (UKRI etc.) may need to be made available Open Access if published in monographs or edited longform publications. Contact openaccess@leedsbeckett.ac.uk if you are unsure.
Ellie Clement
Ellie is a Library Academic Support Team Manager in Library Services, working the with the Library Research Support team and Academic Librarians.
