University open access policies

The policies below apply to the work that you produce whilst at the University of Exeter. Policies relating to Research Data Management and open data can be found on this page.

Institutional open access policy

University of Exeter Open Access Policy (revised May 2026)

The University supports the principles of open access where legally, commercially and ethically appropriate. These principles apply to all research conducted at the University, regardless of funding source.

in-scope outputs are journal articles and conference proceedings published with an ISSN
staff must make in-scope outputs open access by uploading via Symplectic to ORE
to ensure compliance with REF open access policy, all in-scope outputs must be deposited to ORE upon, or at the latest within 3 months of, acceptance
embargo periods (where permitted by the funder) must not exceed six months for STEM disciplines, and 12 months for HASS disciplines
authors of other output types such as monographs or book chapters are encouraged to pursue open access publication, where possible and practical
all research publications must include a data access statement

Furthermore,
Researchers should always comply with their funder open access policy (if applicable).
Where external funding is available to publish open access, including from the research funder, researchers should take advantage of this before applying to University budgets.
The University will fund open access publication for UKRI or Wellcome Trust funded research.
Limited institutional open access funding is available, researchers should contact the Open Research team prior to submission, to apply.
Researchers are encouraged to make use of agreements available through the Library, which enable open access publishing without individual article fees, as it has already been paid for.

Check journal options before submitting using Exeter Journal Guide.

University of Exeter Rights Retention Policy

The University of Exeter Rights Retention policy applies to:

authors and co-authors who are Staff or Postgraduate Research Students (PGRs) at the University of Exeter
journal articles or conference proceedings with an ISSN that are authored or co-authored whilst affiliated with University of Exeter
first submitted for publication from 1st January 2024

Under the policy:

The University waives ownership of copyright of and acknowledges that members of staff own the copyright to, scholarly works they create, such as academic journal articles, text books, conference papers and related presentations/aide memoires for personal use, see the University Intellectual Property (IP) policy.
In exchange for waiving ownership of copyright, authors grant the University a non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free licence to make manuscripts of their scholarly articles publicly available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence or a similar licence terms
Authors apply a CC-BY licence to the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) upon submission, giving precedence over any subsequent publisher's licensing agreement.

How to comply:

Include the following wording in all article submissions, in the manuscript and any covering letter: “For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission"
An alternative statement with the same intended outcome can be used if required by specific funders.
Inform your co-authors about the University's Rights Retention policy and agree on a licence before submission.
Whilst CC-BY is strongly encouraged, the University recognizes the need for different licences based on funder requirements, such as CC BY NC/ND or the Open Government Licence for research subject to Crown copyright.
After acceptance, upload the accepted manuscript (containing the Rights Retention statement) via Symplectic to ORE.

Contacting publishers:

The Library contacted publishers on 1st May 2024 to inform them of the Institutional Rights Retention policy, applying a CC BY licence to the accepted manuscript version of all articles with a University of Exeter author. If you first submitted after this date to a journal published by a publisher that we contacted, this means your paper is covered for Rights Retention even if the Rights Retention statement was not included at submission, and your accepted manuscript will be made immediately open access in ORE with a CC BY licence. Please get in touch if you would like us to send a notification to a publisher that has not already been contacted.

Opt Out:

The University recognizes that complex situations may arise where compliance with the policy is challenging. In such cases, staff members can voluntarily opt out of the requirement for immediate open access or the assignment of a CC BY licence in respect of a specific submission. Contact the Open Research team at submission if you need to opt out, then indicate the opt out status for your article when you upload in Symplectic at acceptance. Opt outs must be confirmed at the latest when you upload via Symplectic to ORE; if we have not been notified of your wish to opt out, the article may be made immediately open access in ORE under the CC BY licence, which is irrevocable.

View the Rights Retention Policy checklist for researchers.

View the Rights Retention Policy FAQs.

Policy for managing central open access funds

The University of Exeter policy for managing central open access funds

applies from 01 January 2021
applies to centrally administered open access funds: UKRI, Wellcome Trust, British Heart Foundation and Institutional open access fund
aligns our strategy with Plan S and Wellcome Trust open access policy 2021

Funds will be prioritised to support:

open access publishing fees where these are essential to publication e.g. fully open access journals
publisher agreements

For more details, view the Central open access funds policy and FAQ

Eligibility criteria for open access funds and publisher agreements

Eligibility criteria: open access funds and publisher agreements

Eligibility criteria for accessing the University's open access funds and publisher agreements were approved by the Research and Impact Executive Committee (RIEC) in May 2023. Revisions to the criteria, primarily intended for the institutional fund, apply from 1st April 2026.

To apply to the funds and agreements, eligible corresponding authors are:

currently employed members of staff
students of the University (PGR, PGT, UG) during their course and for up to two years after completion, when publishing research that was conducted at University of Exeter
clinicians (with University of Exeter Associate status)
researchers funded through the Council for At Risk Academics (with University of Exeter Associate status)

When open access publishing is funded through Exeter's funds or publisher agreements, we expect that a University of Exeter affiliation is being used on the paper.

All requests to the institutional open access fund must include a CREDIT Attribution statement or equivalent, outlining the involvement in the research of all authors and we recommend that this is included in the article as well.

Affiliation will be verified at the point of approving an open access request, which is usually at submission to an open access journal and upon acceptance to a hybrid one. When publishing through agreements, in the case of multiple corresponding authors, publishers may define which corresponding author must be affiliated and we abide by the publisher definition.

Former staff of the University are no longer eligible, unless the paper was submitted during their employment at Exeter (and publishing research that was conducted at the University). Contact the Open Research team to discuss cases that fall outside the eligibility criteria above, particularly if your work arises from external research funding and you are concerned about compliance with your funder open access policy.

Open Research Exeter (ORE) repository policy

ORE policy

This document is the policy for Open Research Exeter (ORE), the institutional repository of the University of Exeter: ORE policy.