Funder policies
All research publications should include acknowledgement of the funding that supported the research, including funder name and grant numbers, and a data access statement and should be published in compliance with funder open access requirements. Check the terms and conditions of your research grant for open access obligations. Check your funder open access policy (if applicable). Contact Open Research for help determining your funder open access requirements.
You may be able to meet your funder requirements by uploading your accepted manuscript to a repository (self-archiving, or "green" open access). If the publisher-imposed embargo exceeds your funder allowed maximum, publish open access on the publisher website; there may be a fee to pay.
Policy: Alzheimer's Society open access policy.
Scope: Peer-reviewed, primary research articles.
Repository: All papers must be deposited in Europe PubMed Central (PMC). The publisher may deposit to PMC on your behalf (you may need to opt in to this). If they do not deposit to PMC for you, upload yourself using the Europe PMC author manuscript submission system.
Maximum allowed embargo: six months, in Europe PMC.
Paid open access licence: Not specified.
Source of APC funding: Alzheimer's Society will consider requests to use underspend on grants to pay open access costs - contact the funder to enquire. If no funds are available in the research grant, we may be able to pay APCs using the institutional open access fund, which is administered according to the University central open access funds policy. Request open access funding upon submission to a fully open access journal. Conact us upon acceptance to a "hybrid" journal to discuss your open access options and whether you need to pay to publish open access to comply.
Policy: British Heart Foundation open access policy
Scope: Peer-reviewed primary research papers, non-commissioned reviews.
Repository: All papers must be deposited in Europe PubMed Central (PMC). If you pay to publish open access, the publisher must deposit to PMC. If you do not pay to publish open access, the publisher may deposit to PMC on your behalf (you may need to opt in to this). If they do not deposit to PMC for you, upload yourself using the Europe PMC author manuscript submission system.
Maximum allowed embargo: six months, in Europe PMC.
Paid open access licence: Creative Commons Attribution Licence CC BY 4.0 (only).
Source of APC funding: British Heart Foundation (BHF) open access block grant, administered by Open Research Team. The 2020-2021 block grant has already been spent but we may be able to pay APCs using the institutional open access fund, which is administered according to the University policy for managing central open access funds. Request open access funding upon submission to a fully open access journal. Conact us upon acceptance to a "hybrid" journal to discuss your open access options and whether you need to pay to publish open access to comply.
Other publication charges: British Heart Foundation do not support payment of other publication charges such as page or colour charges.
Policy link: Cancer Research UK (CRUK) open access policy.
Scope: Peer-reviewed original (i.e. primary data-based) research papers submitted for publication on or after 1st January 2022.
Policy: Articles must be open access in PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC immediately upon publication (no embargo)
Repository: All papers must be deposited in Europe PubMed Central (PMC). If you pay to publish open access, the publisher must deposit to PMC. If you do not pay to publish open access, the publisher may deposit to PMC on your behalf (you may need to opt in to this). If they do not deposit to PMC for you, upload yourself using the Europe PMC author manuscript submission system.
Maximum allowed embargo: OA must be immdiate (no embargo)
Paid open access licence: Creative Commons Attribution Licence CC BY 4.0 (only).
Source of APC funding: The University of Exeter does not have a Cancer Research UK block grant. Researchers may cover APC costs using unspent Cancer Research UK grant funds. If there are no funds available in the research grant, we may be able to pay APCs using the institutional open access fund. Request open access funding upon submission to a fully open access journal; contact us upon submission or acceptance to a "hybrid" journal to discuss your open access options and whether you need to pay to publish open access to comply.
Preprints: Cancer Research UK funded researchers are encouraged to post preprints of their work and publish them under a CC BY licence on a platform that is indexed in Europe PMC.
Compliance tool: check compliance of your chosen journal with CRUK OA policy using SHERPA/FACT.
Policy: Diabetes UK open access policy.
Scope: Not specified.
Repository: All papers must be deposited in Europe PubMed Central (PMC). The publisher may deposit to PMC on your behalf (you may need to opt in to this). If they do not deposit to PMC for you, upload yourself using the Europe PMC author manuscript submission system. In exceptional circumstances only and with the prior approval of Diabetes UK, Diabetes UK funded researchers may publish in a journal that would not allow the article to be deposited in Europe PubMed Central within six months.
Maximum allowed embargo, for accepted manuscript in a repository: six months, in Europe PMC.
Paid open access licence: Not specified.
Source of APC funding: Where there is an under-spend on a Diabetes UK grant, where the publication has been wholly funded by Diabetes UK, and with the written permission of Diabetes UK, this may be used to meet the cost of open access fees. If there are no funds available in the research grant, we may be able to pay APCs using the institutional open access fund. Request open access funding upon submission to a fully open access journal. Conact us upon acceptance to a "hybrid" journal to discuss your open access options and whether you need to pay to publish open access to comply.
Open Science requirements are embedded in ERC grant agreements and depend on the Framework Programme (ERC call) under which you obtained funding e.g. FP7 (2008-2013), Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) or Horizon Europe (2021-2027). View ERC open access overview for details.
ERC FAQs include a number relating to open access.
For further information, consult the Annotated Grant Agreements for Horizon 2020 or for Horizon Europe, or view those sections below.
Research funders: Horizon 2020 (H2020)
Policy: Horizon 2020 open access to scientific publications and research data
See also the ERC Open Science webpage for an overview of the requirements.
Factsheet: Open Research Europe (ORE) - an open access publishing platform for Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe research results.
Scope: Peer-reviewed original research articles, monographs and other research publications. For publications that do not primarily report on original results from the ERC-funded research, (such as review papers) the obligations do not apply. However, you are encouraged provide open access to such publications.
Maximum allowed embargo: 6 months (STEM) or 12 months (HASS)
Repository: The use of discipline-specific repositories is encouraged. A list of recommended repositories is included in ERC open access guidelines.
Paid open access licence: The use of Creative Commons (CC) or similar licences is encouraged; the funder states that "CC BY is a good legal tool for providing open access in its broadest sense".
Source of APC funding: Open access fees are eligible to be charged against H2020 grants, if incurred during the duration of the project.
Factsheet: Open Science in Horizon Europe
Visit the ERC Open Science webpage for an overview of the requirements.
Research funders: Horizon Europe (2021-2027).
Policy: Open access (OA) requirements taken from HE Model Grant Agreement v1.0 and Annotated Grant Agreement (accessed here 8 August 2021).
Scope: Peer-reviewed scientific publications including articles and long-text formats such as monographs and other types of books.
Requirements: Beneficiaries must ensure immediate OA i.e. at the same time as the first publication, to the Author's Accepted Manuscript or Version of Record through a trusted repository (see below) using specific open licences (see further below).
Compliant publishing venues: Beneficiaries may publish in their venue of choice, whether closed access (subcription-only), hybrid or full OA journal or platform, providing all OA obligations are met. All outputs must be deposited in a repository for immediate OA, including if they are published OA on the publisher website.
The European Commission offer Open Research Europe (ORE) - an OA publishing platform with no publishing fees, for Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe research results.
Maximum allowed embargo: No embargo allowed, must be immediately OA in a repository.
Repository: Certified repositories or disciplinary and domain repositories commonly used and endorsed by research communities internationally; general purpose or institutional repositories that present the essential characteristics of trusted repositories. See HE Annex 5 of the Annotated Grant Agreement on this page for more details.
Open access licence: Publications must be licensed under the latest available version of the Creative Commons Attribution International Public Licence (CC BY) or a licence with equivalent rights. For monographs and other long-text formats, the licence may exclude commercial uses and derivative works (e.g. CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND, CC BY-NC-ND or other equivalent licences).
Copyright: Beneficiaries (or authors) must retain sufficient intellectual property rights to comply with the OA requirements.
Data access statement / Validation requirements: Information must be given via the repository (or via the copy of the publication deposited in the repository) about any research output or any other tools and instruments needed to validate the conclusions of the scientific publication. This could include data, software, algorithms, protocols, models, workflows, electronic notebooks and others. Information should include a detailed description of the research output/tool/instrument, how to access it, any dependencies on commercial products, potential version/type, potential parameters, etc
Open access funding: Publishing fees in full OA venues are eligible costs (e.g. a full OA journal or platform, fully OA book). The following are not eligible costs: publication fees in hybrid venues (e.g. a hybrid journal, or book in which some content is OA and some is closed access), page and colour charges, printing fees for monographs and other books.
Policy: The Leverhulme Trust make no stipulations regarding mandatory archiving or open access publication for Leverhulme grant holders, read question 8 on the Leverhulme Trust website.
Source of APC funding: Open access is a permissible cost during the duration of the award, read question 6 on the Leverhulme website. After the research grant has ended, or if you have no funds available to pay for open access in the research grant, we may be able to pay APCs using the institutional open access fund, which is administered according to the University central open access funds policy. Submit an open access funding request upon submission to a fully open access journal. According to the University policy we can only pay APCs in hybrid journals when payment is essential for funder compliance, contact us upon acceptance to a hybrid journal to discuss your open access options.
- National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR)
Policy: NIHR open access policy
Scope: Peer-reviewed research articles and review articles not commissioned by publishers that are supported in whole, or in part, by NIHR funding. The policy does not cover books, critical editions, volumes, catalogues, or non-peer-reviewed material, although the NIHR encourages authors to consider making these outputs open access where possible.
The "main study findings paper" must be published in a peer-reviewed open access journal. Open access to other outputs is encouraged, but not mandated.
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) Licence
Maximum allowed embargo: None.
Repository: PubMed Central
Paid open access licence: CC BY (only)
Source of APC funding: It is expected that award holders will make provision from the award to cover publication costs. If necessary, contact the awarding awarding NIHR coordinating centre to discuss publication and payment.
Research funder: National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR)
NIHR Programmes, NIHR Personal Awards and NIHR Global Health Research Portfolio: Research studies where the research costs are funded in whole or in part by the NIHR.
Personal awards that do not fund research are out of scope of this policy.
NIHR Infrastructure (including NIHR research units and schools): Research studies where the majority of the research costs are funded by the NIHR.
Policy link: NIHR open access policy for articles submitted from 1st June 2022
Scope: peer-reviewed articles (including non-commissioned reviews and conference papers) describing NIHR funded research findings, submitted on or after 1 June 2022.
Policy: Version of record or Author Accepted Manuscript must be freely available through PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC by the official final publication date (no embargo).
Submissions to subscription journals must include the following text in the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript and any cover letter/note accompanying the submission:
"For the purpose of open access, the author has applied [a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence] [an ‘Open Government Licence’] (or where permitted by the National Institute for Health Research) [a Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence] to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising".
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) Licence; Open Government Licence (OGL) when subject to Crown Copyright; CC BY-ND may be permitted on a case-by-case basis.
The licensing requirements do not apply to any materials included within a research article that are provided by third-party copyright holders. The third-party materials in the article can be subject to more restrictive copyright licences than outlined in this policy.
Maximum allowed embargo: No embargo is allowed - open access must be immediate in PMC and EPMC.
Repository: PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC
Source of APC funding: read more details here.
Data sharing statement: Articles must include a statement describing how the underpinning research data can be accessed. Where there are reasons to protect access to the data, for example commercial confidentiality or sensitivities around data derived from potentially identifiable human participants, these should be included in the statement. Read more about NIHR position on the sharing of research data.
Funding acknowledgement: in addition to the set text above advising of the CC BY licence applied to any author accepted manuscript arising, manuscripts must include acknowledgement of funding, including unique identifier and disclaimer, in the funding or acknowledgments section of the manuscript and also included in the funding information requested by the publicatin on submission, read more here.
Useful resources: NIHR Open Access policy guideance, FAQ and compliance checklist
Policy: Parkinson's UK open access policy.
Scope: Original research papers. The policy does not apply to editorials, letters, commissioned reviews, scholarly monographs, conference proceedings or book chapters.
Repository: All papers must be deposited in Europe PubMed Central (PMC). If you pay to publish open access, the publisher must deposit to PMC. If you do not pay to publish open access, the publisher may deposit to PMC on your behalf (you may need to opt in to this). If they do not deposit to PMC for you, upload yourself using the Europe PMC author manuscript submission system.
Maximum allowed embargo: six months, in Europe PMC.
Paid open access licence: Creative Commons Attribution Licence CC BY (only).
Source of APC funding: Researchers may use any unspent grant money to pay for APCs or contact Parkinson's UK at researchapplications@parkinsons.org.uk to discuss their options.
Other publication charges: Parkinson's UK do not support payment of other publication charges such as page or colour charges.
- Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
- Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council (BBSRC)
- Economic and Social Sciences Research Council (ESRC)
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
- Medical Research Council (MRC)
- Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
- Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Policy: RCUK open access policy
Scope: Peer-reviewed research articles, review articles not commissioned by publishers and conference proceedings acknowledging funding by Research Councils UK that are submitted for publication by 31st March 2022. For articles submitted from 1st April 2022, new UKRI open access policy will apply (see tab below for details).
Maximum allowed embargo, for accepted manuscript in a repository: when APC funds are available, max. 6 months (BBSRC, EPSRC, MRC, NERC, STFC) or 12 months (AHRC, ESRC). When APC funds are unavailable, max. 6 months (MRC), 12 months (BBSRC, EPSRC, NERC, STFC), 24 months (AHRC, ESRC).
Repository: BBSRC and MRC funded papers should be deposited in PubMed Central
Paid open access licence: CC BY (only)
Source of APC funding: UK Research Councils open access block grant, administered by Open Research Team. Request open access funding upon submission to a full open access journal, or at acceptance to a "hybrid" journal. Apply before the paper is published online as we cannot pay if the paper has already been published online not as open access (any version).
Other publication charges: including page, colour and excess length charges. Please approach your publisher to request a waiver of your publication fee; opt for colour "online only", free of charge (many publishers only charge for printing colour in paper journals). Publication charges not associated with open access can no longer be paid from the UKRI open access block grant. If your publication charges are mandatory, you have requested a waiver and they cannot be waived you are welcome to contact us.
Policy: UKRI new open access policy
Scope: Peer-reviewed research articles including reviews and conference papers accepted to a journal or conference proceeding with an ISSN, or publishing platform, that are required to acknowledge funding from UKRI or its constituent councils and are submitted for publication on or after 1st April 2022.
Routes to compliance:
- Publish open access in a journal or platform that makes the Version of Record (VoR) immediately open access (OA) with a permitted licence. This includes publishing in a full OA journal or publishing platform, or publishing in a journal included in a Transformative Agreement when you are corresponding author.
- Publish not-OA in a subscription or hybrid journal not in a transformative arrangement and make the Author Accepted Manuscript (or VoR if permitted by publisher) OA in a repository at the time of final publication ('repository route').
Check compliance before submitting using Journal Checker Tool.
Allowed embargo: No embargo is allowed, all outputs must be immediately OA.
Funding acknowledgement and set text: Article submissions must include set text in the acknowledgements section of the manuscript and any accompanying covering letter:
‘For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising' (where permitted by UKRI, ‘Open Government Licence’ or ‘CC BY-ND public copyright licence’ may be stated instead)
Open access licence: OA versions must be published with Creative Commons Attribution Licence CC BY (only), whether published OA on the publisher website or OA in a repository. There are two exceptions:
- Open Government Licence can be used when a research article is subject to Crown Copyright.
- Where use of CC BY (only) is not appropriate, CC BY Non-Derivatives CC BY-ND exception may be applied. Application must be made via email to UKRI before the output is published, ND exception form on this page.
Open access funding: UKRI OA block grant (OABG) administered by Open Research Team. Eligible costs against UKRI OABG include APCs in full OA journals. Apply for funding before committing to pay or requesting an invoice. From 1st April 2022, UKRI funds can no longer be used to pay APCs in hybrid journals that are not part of a Transformative Agreement and UKRI will no longer pay non-OA publication charges such as page charges.
Repository: Institutional or subject repository; BBSRC and MRC funded biomedical research papers should be deposited in PubMed Central.
Data access statement: All in-scope articles must include a Data Access Statement, even when there are no data associated with the article or the data are inaccessible; see Annex 1 of UKRI policy. More information on the Open Research Resource hub.
Preprints: Preprints are not within scope of the new UKRI open access policy, however UKRI encourages the use of preprints across all research disciplines that they support and may ensure the use of preprints in the context of emergencies. Also see the MRC policy on preprints and the BBSRC policy on preprints.
Useful links: Find more information on the UKRI website at the links below. Visit our website for additional FAQ not listed in the UKRI FAQ document.
Policy: UKRI open access policy
Training and support: We are running monthly drop-in sessions about the new open access policy for UKRI funded research - more details online.
Scope: Monographs, book chapters and edited collections, as defined in Annex 1 of the policy that are required to acknowledge funding from UKRI or its constituent councils and are published on or after 1st January 2024.
Open access requirements: The Version of Record or Author's Accepted Manuscript must be free to view and download from an online publication platform, publishers website or institutional or subject repository within 12 monthe of publication.
Maximum allowed embargo: 12 months.
Open access licence: Open access versions must be published with a Creative Commons (CC) licence. CC BY (only) is preferred but other Creative Commons licences are permitted. An An Open Government Licence (OGL) can be used when a research article is subject to Crown Copyright.
UKRI’s licensing requirements do not apply to any materials included within a long-form output that are provided by third-party copyright holders. Academic books published under a CC licence may include third-party materials that are subject to a more restrictive licence, UKRI considers this approach compliant with its policy. An exception will be available for when reuse permissions for third-party materials cannot be obtained and there is no suitable alternative option available to enable open access publication. UKRI will publish more details about this on the website in due course.
Open access funding: Funding will be a centralised fund held by UKRI that organisations will apply for. UKRI will provide more details about the process and definitions of eligible costs for long form outputs in November 2022.
Exemptions: Exemptions may apply where a. the only appropriate publisher, after liaison and consideration, is unable to offer an open access option that complies with UKRI’s policy and b. where a monograph, book chapter or edited collection is the outcome of a UKRI Training Grant, c. where a contract has been signed before 1st January 2024 that prevents adherence with the policy, however UKRI strongly encourage open access within a year of publication. UKRI will publish more details about exemptions before the policy start date.
Useful links: Find more information on the UKRI website at the links below. Visit our website for additional FAQ not listed in the UKRI FAQ document.
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Making your research publications open access
- Shaping our open access policy
Policy: Versus Arthritis open access policy.
Scope: Original research papers. The policy does not apply to editorials, letters, commissioned reviews, non-commissioned reviews, scholarly monographs, conference proceedings or book chapters.
Repository: All papers must be deposited in Europe PubMed Central (PMC). If you pay to publish open access, the publisher must deposit to PMC. If you do not pay to publish open access, the publisher may deposit to PMC on your behalf (you may need to opt in to this). If they do not deposit to PMC for you, upload yourself using the Europe PMC author manuscript submission system.
Maximum allowed embargo: six months, in Europe PMC.
Paid open access licence: Creative Commons Attribution Licence CC BY (only).
Source of APC funding: Versus Arthritis has a limited budget to pay reasonable open access costs. Authors should apply directly to the funder via Grant Tracker. If no funds are available from the funder, researchers can apply to the institutional open access fund. Request open access funding upon submission to a fully open access journal; contact us upon submission or acceptance to a "hybrid" journal to discuss your options and whether you need to pay to publish open access to comply.
Other publication charges: Versus Arthritis do not support payment of other publication charges such as page or colour charges.
Wellcome funded peer-reviewed original research articles
Policy: Wellcome Trust open access (OA) policy 2021.
Training and Support: View a recording (video, 16 minutes) about the Wellcome Trust OA policy 2021 for research articles and Wellcome Trust OA policy for monographs and book chapters.
Scope: Peer-reviewed original research articles acknowledging Wellcome Trust funding, wholly or in part, submitted for publication on or after 01 January 2021.
Acknowledging funding: all submissions of original research to peer-reviewed journals must include the statement
'This research was funded in whole, or in part, by the Wellcome Trust [Grant number]. For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission'.
This text should also be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in any covering letter accompanying the submission.
Applying a CC BY to your accepted manuscript (AAM) ensures you can comply with Wellcome policy by uploading to PMC. Notify the publisher of the CC BY on AAM upon submission and check publishing contracts carefully to ensure there is no conflict with Wellcome policy.
Policy: All papers must be deposited in PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC (EPMC) and made open access there with CC BY (only) licence immediately upon publication (no embargo).
Deposit to PMC: If you pay to publish OA, the publisher must deposit to PMC. If you do not publish OA on the publisher website, the publisher may deposit to PMC (you may need to opt in); if they do not deposit to PMC for you, upload the accepted manuscript using Europe PMC Plus.
Open access licence: Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) (only) must be applied to all papers. This applies when publishing OA on the publisher website and when providing OA to the accepted manuscript in EPMC. CC BY-ND exception may be available upon request.
Routes to open access:
Check the route to compliance using Journal Checker Tool.
- publish in a full OA journal / platform that offers a Wellcome compliant publishing option. Contact Open Research upon submission to apply for OA funding
- publish OA in a journal that's included in a Transformative Agreement we have signed up to; when you are the corresponding author, OA publication has already been paid for
- publish not-OA in a hybrid / subscription journal that's not included in a Transformative arrangement. No publishing fees will be paid. Comply with Wellcome policy by uploading the accepted manuscript via Europe PMC Plus to make it open access in PMC with CC BY licence immediately upon publication (no embargo).
Open access funding: Centrally administered Wellcome OA funds are available to pay APCs in full OA journals that offer a Wellcome-compliant publishing option. Contact Open Research at submission to apply.
Data statement: All research articles must include a statement explaining how other researchers can access any data, original software or materials underpinning the research.
Pre-printing: Wellcome Trust funded researchers are strongly encouraged to post preprints of their work and to make them available with a CC BY licence via a platform that is indexed in EPMC. Pre-printing is mandated in public health emergencies.
Useful links:
Wellcome funded Book chapters and monographs
Policy: Wellcome Trust open access policy.
View a recording (video, 16 minutes) about the Wellcome Trust open access policy 2021 for research articles and Wellcome Trust open access policy for monographs and book chapters.
Scope: Book chapters and monographs funded by the Wellcome Trust.
Maximum allowed embargo: For accepted manuscript in PMC Bookshelf, 6 months.
Repository: All scholarly monographs and book chapters must be uploaded to PubMed Central Bookshelf either by the publisher or author using the PMC Bookshelf monograph and book chapter deposit form.
Open access licence: CC BY (only) is strongly preferred. If CC BY (only) not available, CC-BY-NC or CC-BY-NC-ND
Open access funding: Supplementation of research grant. Apply to the Wellcome Trust for OA funding.