Shaping our open access policy

Contents

Implementing our open access policy

To implement our open access policy, we are committed to working collaboratively to support the policy in practice, with:

  • research-performing organisations
  • researchers
  • publishers
  • other relevant stakeholders

We’ve set out current implementation activities and dates when further information will be made available. This will continue to be updated as work progresses.

Read Professor Sir Duncan Wingham’s blog about progress implementing the policy.

Open access funding

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is providing up to £46.7 million per year to support the overall implementation of the policy.

Most of this funding is directly allocated to research organisations via a block grant to support open access research articles.

UKRI has launched a new £3.5 million fund, dedicated to supporting open access costs for monographs, book chapters and edited collections within the scope of our new policy.

The fund is centrally held by UKRI, and research organisations apply to UKRI to access it. The fund aims to:

  • support immediate open access for the version of record of monographs, book chapters, and edited collections that are in scope of the UKRI open access policy
  • seek affordability and support sustainability to achieve open access
  • support a diverse range of research organisations

Information about the block grant and the fund for monographs, book chapters, and edited collections can be found at Open access funding and reporting.

Guidance and information for monographs, book chapters and edited collections

UKRI has published a series of resources for researchers and their organisations. These include:

We continue to engage stakeholders to raise awareness of the policy for monographs, book chapters and edited collections and to support researchers and research organisations to prepare.

On 8 November 2023, we held an information event about the open access policy and fund for monographs, book chapters and edited collections. Information from the event is available through our open access policy information and good practice sharing events slides.

In November 2023, we contacted grant holders and research organisations with information about the new policy and fund.

We are also engaging with stakeholders via our stakeholder forum and dedicated meetings to discuss and inform implementation activities.

Read Christopher Smith’s (AHRC Executive Chair) blog about unlocking arts and humanities research through open access.

Read articles about implementing open access for monographs on the Jisc Research blog.

Monitoring and evaluation

During 2024 UKRI is undertaking a light-touch review of its open access policy for research articles, to take the opportunity to consider whether adjustments are necessary. The review will report in January 2025.

Building on the 2024 light-touch review, UKRI is developing a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework for the policy. This will help UKRI and the sector assess open access progress, levels of compliance with our policy and its effectiveness.

The M&E framework will also seek to establish insights into open access publication trends across the UK and, where possible, their impact on academic practices and society.

The M&E framework will employ a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures. We will also be considering information sources and datasets that will yield useful insights while minimising bureaucracy.

UKRI commissioned Research Consulting to support the development of its M&E framework. The outcomes are available on monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of UKRI’s open access policy.

Following on from that project, we worked with Research Consulting to analyse publication patterns for UKRI research articles. These will provide a baseline for our monitoring and evaluation.

We are considering these outputs in developing our M&E framework which we will publish in January 2025.

Monitoring policy compliance

Compliance of research organisations with the policy will form part of our monitoring activity. Research organisations no longer need to submit an annual open access compliance form.

While the policy for monographs, book chapters and edited collections commenced from 1 January 2024, we will not start to monitor compliance until September 2024 onwards. This is to provide a bedding-in period to allow research organisations and award holders to establish practice and mechanisms for UKRI’s new policy and funding approach.

We will provide an update on the end of the bedding-in period and next steps in November 2024.

The details of our approach to monitoring compliance are being further developed as part of our wider M&E framework. However, work undertaken so far suggests that we will be able to use existing data sources and there will not be a reporting requirement on research organisations.

For more information on monitoring and compliance, see the UKRI open access policy and supplementary frequently asked questions (FAQs).

For information about open access block grant monitoring and funding assurance, see open access funding and reporting.

Technical requirements for research articles

Our policy sets out technical requirements for research article venues. We commissioned MoreBrains Cooperative to conduct an analysis of the metadata landscape, which shows that currently it does not fully support implementation of the requirements set out in the open access policy. The Metadata to support the UKRI open access policy report makes several recommendations towards full adoption.

A phased approach to full adoption is necessary. Working with MoreBrains Cooperative, we are identifying potential next steps for improving the open access research information landscape. This will build on the recommendations of their report by setting out practical pathways to open access policy compatibility that can guide UKRI’s work and that of repositories, publishers and service providers.

The potential next steps will be published later in 2024. Further information on the project can be found on improving the open access research information landscape.

Building capacity to accelerate open access for monographs, book chapters and edited collections

To support the transition to open access for monographs, book chapters, and edited collections, UKRI has made strategic investments to build capacity and support researchers to practice open access. This includes working collaboratively with stakeholders and investing in infrastructure.

We have commissioned Insights Media to develop case studies to help researchers learn from the experiences of authors who have published monographs and edited collections open access. The case studies will share examples of opportunities, challenges, and lessons learnt.

We are funding project collaboration to convene stakeholders and develop implementation strategies. The project will establish a forum for good practice exchange and develop resources for researchers and open access professionals across the research sector.

The project is led by:

To support publishers, we have commissioned Information Power to develop a toolkit that can support learned society, subject association, and smaller specialist publishers to transition to open access business models for academic books.

Information about the project can be found at Open Access transitions for book publishers (SPA OPS 4.0). On this project we are working in partnership with:

We are working with Jisc on engagement and guidance for monographs, book chapters and edited collections. This includes providing an Open Access for Books tool for authors and research organisations to check whether their preferred publisher supports compliance with our requirements for monographs, book chapters, and edited collections, through upgrades to Jisc’s Sherpa Services.

Jisc has also created a series of short guides for publishers to explain key concepts in the UKRI open access policy as well as open access more broadly.

Read articles about implementing open access for monographs on the Jisc Research blog.

UKRI is partnering with the OAPEN Foundation, an organisation dedicated to open access, peer-reviewed books. Through this partnership OAPEN will provide open infrastructure services for monographs and edited collections that are published open access under UKRI’s policy and make them available through the OAPEN Library.

This will improve discoverability and preservation of open access monographs and edited collections, and support our monitoring and evaluation activities.

Stakeholder forum

UKRI has established a stakeholder forum to support the implementation of the policy and wider adoption of open access. The forum’s membership and summaries of its meetings can be found at UKRI Open Access Policy Stakeholder Forum.

Working with Jisc

UKRI has funded Jisc to undertake activities to support the implementation of the policy. These include:

  • scaling up sustainable, affordable open access agreements to provide UKRI-funded researchers and their publishers with opportunity to access compliant routes to publish
  • gathering and analysing data to monitor and evaluate the performance of transitional arrangements to enable Jisc members, funders and publishers to understand the progress and impact of these arrangements in the context of the UK’s ambition to achieve 100% open access
  • working with a range of stakeholders, including publishers and research organisations, to:
    • develop an understanding of the challenges around open access
    • share and develop best practice
    • deliver support
  • preparing and equipping research organisations with tools, guidance and publishing options in readiness for the commencement of the open access monographs policy.

Read more on Jisc’s website about:

Information and good practice events

UKRI has held information and good practice sharing events for research organisations on our open access policy.

See the outputs from these events:

UKRI held a series of events on its open access fund for monographs, book chapter, and edited collections. See the outputs from these events at Open access funding and reporting.

Ask a question about the UKRI open access policy

Check for an existing answer in the UKRI open access policy and supplementary FAQs.

Email: openresearch@ukri.org

Last updated: 16 September 2024

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