
HEFCE and the other three UK funding bodies have just published details of a new policy for Open Access relating to future research assessments after the current 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF).
The policy states that, to be eligible for submission to the post-2014 REF, authors’ final peer-reviewed manuscripts must have been deposited in an institutional or subject repository on acceptance for publication. Deposited material should be discoverable, and free to read and download, for anyone with an internet connection.
The requirement applies only to journal articles and conference proceedings with an International Standard Serial Number. It will not apply to monographs, book chapters, other long-form publications, working papers, creative or practice-based research outputs, or data. This new policy applies to research outputs accepted for publication after 1 April 2016.
Complete details of the policy can be found on the HEFCE website here.
The Library and Research Office will be working together to decide how to implement the policy across campus, and we’ll keep you up to date with further developments. In the mean time, you can find more information about our present OA policy via our Open Access pages on our website here.