The University's Research Publications and Open Access Policy applies to all scholarly research articles (including conference proceedings) by University of York research staff. 

The policy aims to: 

• Enable researchers to reuse and share their scholarship as widely as possible.
• Support authors to publish their work in a publication venue of their choosing.
• Help researchers to comply with the open access requirements of research funders such as UKRI and the Wellcome Trust.

How does the Policy help me?

The policy asserts the author's rights to the "accepted manuscript" of any research article they have created and that has been accepted for publication. This means that, for all articles, the accepted manuscript can be uploaded to the University Research Repository and made openly available when the journal publishes their final version. 

By following the University's open access policy, researchers ensure they are acting in accordance with their funders' open access requirements, and that their outputs are likely to be eligible for the next REF exercise. This means their is no compulsion on authors to use a paid open access route.

How does the Policy work?

The policy is based on the principle of Rights Retention. This recognises that researchers own the initial copyright to the manuscripts that they create as part of their research, and that it is not necessary for an author to sign over their copyright or grant an exclusive licence to a publisher in order for their work to be published or disseminated. 

Under the institutional policy, the author retains their rights by granting the University a non-exclusive licence to make accepted manuscripts publicly available (under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence)) without embargo via the University repository, White Rose Research Online. This allows any research article produced by York research staff to take advantage of the Green route to open access. 

Opting Out of the Policy     

You can opt any of your papers out of the institutional open access policy, whenever you feel this is necessary. Opting-out might be especially appropriate in scenarios where: 

• An article contains third-party material that cannont be shared with a Creative Commons attribution (CC BY) licence. 
• An article contains sensitive material not appropriate for wider sharing.
• Co-authors do not want to share the manuscript with a Creative Commons attribution (CC BY) licence.
• You have already applied for a UKRI/Wellcome licensing exception.
• A journal will not allow you to comply with the University's rights retention policy.

Note that opting-out of the University's policy of immediate open access may cause an output to be non-compliant with some funder open access policies. 

Outputs that have been opted-out of immediate open access should still be deposited in Pure.

You do not need to opt-out of the institutional policy if the final published version will be made openly available. In these instances, the accepted manuscript will not be made available, and the Pure record will direct users to the final version via the journal website.

The Horizon Europe programmes of the European Commission have open access requirements covering:

• All journal articles funded in whole, or in part, by Horizon Europe.
• All books, chapters or other monographs funded in whole, or in part, by Horizon Europe.
• All other peer-reviewed research publications funded in whole, or in part, by Horizon Europe.

Horizon Europe Open Access Requirements for all Publications

Horizon open access requirements apply to all peer-reviewed research publications that arise from Horizon funded research.

For in scope publications:

• The published version, or the author accepted manuscript, must be available in a repository as soon as possible, and no later than the time of publication.
• The open access version should be available via the repository under a Creative Commons attribution (CC BY) licence or a licence with equivalent rights. For monographs, more restrictive licences may be used such as CC BY-NC and CC BY-ND). 

To comply with the policy you can publish an article via any of these routes: 

1. Deposit your article/chapter in Pure with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence so that it is publicly available immediately upon publication. (If you are a postgraduate researcher or a member of teaching staff, check with your publisher as an embargo may apply. If an embargo applies then this route will not be compliant with the Horizon policy. For research staff, due to the University's open access policy, embargos are not applied to manuscripts deposited into Pure.)
2. Publish in a fully open access venue. For a list of fully open access journals see the Directory of Open Access Journals. Horizon can reimburse publication fees where an article is published in a fully open access journal - you can claim these fees using your normal grant expenses process.
3. Publish in a hybrid journal under a transformative agreement. Details of transformative agreements available to York corresponding authors can be found on our Open Access publishing agreements page.

If publishing via route 2 or 3 you should also deposit the final version into Pure.

To comply with the policy you can publish a book/book chapter via any of these routes:

• Publish your work open access with a publisher. Check on submission whether the publisher offers an open access option and how much they will charge in processing fees. Horizon can reimburse publication fees where an entire work is being made open access - you can claim these fees using your normal grant expenses process.
• Deposit your book chapter into Pure with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence so that it is publicly available immediately upon publication. For book chapters, check with the publisher as an embargo may apply. If an embargo applies then this route will not be compliant with the Horizon policy.

  UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) have open access policies covering: 

• Research articles submitted from April 2022 onward.
• Books and book chapters published from January 2024 onward.

UKRI Journal Articles Policy

The UKRI open access policy applies to peer-reviewed research articles and conference papers. This includes review articles such as evidence syntheses, systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The policy does not apply to book reviews or narrative reviews.

For in-scope articles:

• The version of record, or deposited manuscript, must be free and unrestricted to view and download.
• The open access version must be published under a Creative Commons attribution (CC BY) licence. UKRI may permit the use of a more restrictive Creative Commons attribution no-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence. You can apply for a licence exception here.
• The open access version must be immediately available on final publication. No embargo period is permitted.

In order to comply with the UKRI open access policy for research articles you can publish via one of these routes:

1. Publish in a fully open access journal or a Jisc-approved transformative journal. A transformative journal is one which the publisher has committed to converting to fully open access. For a list of fully open access journals see the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). For a list of approved transformative journals see the Jisc-maintained list. UKRI can provide funding to cover publication charges for author using this route.
2. Publish in a hybrid journal under a transformative agreement. Details of transformative agreements available to York corresponding authors can be found on our Open Access publishing agreements page. 
3. Deposit your article in Pure with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence so that it is publicly available immediately on publication. 

UKRI Books & Book chapters Policy

The UKRI open access policy applies to books, book chapters and edited collections. It does not apply to trade books (unless this book is the only output from UKRI-funded research), scholarly editions, exhibition catalogues, textbooks, or any type of fictional works. The policy also does not apply to books and theses produced as a result of a UKRI training grant.

For in-scope monographs:

• The final version (or accepted manuscript) must be free to view and download within a maximum of 12 months of publication. It can be made available via a publisher's website, or via an institutional or subject repository.
• The open access version must be published under a Creative Commons licence. A Creative Commons attribution (CC BY) licence is preferred. This licence requirement does not apply to materials within the publication that are provided by third-party copyright holders. These may be published under a more restrictive licence, on an 'All Rights Reserved' basis, or omitted from the open access publication altogether. (See the UKRI guidance on managing third-party copyright for further details.)

To comply with this policy:

1. On submission of your manuscript, make clear to your publisher that your are expected to comply with the UKRI open access policy for monographs.
2. The publisher will outline their open access options and related publishing fees. You can request funding from UKRI to cover charges up to £10,000 for a book, or up to £1,000 for a book chapter. Funding should be requested via the Library, as early in the publication process as possible. If the publisher does not offer an open access option, (either a paid route or the ability to freely deposit into a repository), you may need to find an alternative publisher. If the publisher offers an open access option, but the fee is above the UKRI limits, contact the Open Research team for advice. Note that UKRI will only reimburse funds requested and paid via the Library, so do not pay these publication charges via your department.
3. For book chapters especially, it may be possible to comply with the policy by depositing the accepted manuscript into the University repository (White Rose Research Online), rather than publishing via a paid open access route. This will depend on whether the publisher will allow you to deposit your manuscript and make it available within 12 months of publication.

The Wellcome Trust has open access policies covering:

• All journal articles that report research supported in whole, or in part, by Wellcome funding.
• All original books and book chapters authored or co-authored by Wellcome grantholders as part of their grant-funded research.

Wellcome Trust Journal Articles Policy

The Wellcome Trust open access policy covers article types whose focus is to report original research. Other article types such as reviews and editorials are not required to comply with this policy.

For in-scope articles:

• The article must be made freely available at the time of publication.
• The article must be published under a Creative Commons attribution (CC BY) licence. Wellcome Trust may permit the use of the more restrictive Creative Commons attribution no-derivatives licence (CC BY-ND). You can apply for a licence exception here.

In order to comply with the policy you can publish via one of these routes:

1. Publish in a fully open access journal or a Plan S-compliant transformative journal. For a list of fully open access journals see the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). For a list of compliant transformative journals see the Plan S list. Wellcome will fund "fair and reasonable" article processing charges for authors using this route. For transformative, rather than fully open access, journals this funding applies until 31 December 2024 only.
2. Publish in a hybrid journal under a transformative agreement. Details of transformative agreements available to York corresponding authors can be found on our Open Access publishing agreements page.
3. Deposit your article in Europe PMC with a Creative Commons attribution (CC BY) licence so that it is publicly available immediately on publication. (You should also deposit your manuscript into Pure to ensure you meet REF open access requirements.)

Wellcome Trust Books & Book Chapters Policy

The Wellcome open access policy applies to all original scholarly books and book chapters authored or co-authored by Wellcome grantholders as part of their grant-funded research. The policy does not apply to textbooks, trade books, general reference works, or works of fiction. The policy also does not apply to collections edited, but not authored, by Wellcome grantholders.

For in scope monographs:

• The book or book chapter must be made openly available through NCBI Bookshelf and Europe PMC within 6 months of publication.
• Where an open access publishing fee is charged, the work must be made available immediately upon publication (without embargo) and should be published under a licence which supports their reuse. A Creative Commons attribution (CC BY) licence is preferred, but Wellcome will accept more restrictive licences such as CC BY-NC or CC BY-NC-ND.

To comply with the policy:

1. On submission of your manuscript to the publisher, make them aware that you are required to comply with Wellcome's open access requirements for monographs.
2. The publisher will outline their open access options and related publishing fees. You can request funding from Wellcome to cover these charges. OAPEN provides a list of publishers who comply with the Wellcome open access policy for monographs. If the publisher does not offer an open access option, (either a paid route or the ability to freely deposit into a repository), you may need to find an alternative publisher.
3. Your publisher may deposit your book/book chapter into NCBI Bookshelf for you. If not, complete this form to deposit it for inclusion in NCBI Bookshelf and Europe PMC. Depending on the publisher's policy, you may be able to do this without having opted for a paid open access route.