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Funder Open Access Policies

Open Research

The University of Aberdeen is committed to open research, ensuring there are no barriers to sharing knowledge.

How to Acknowledge Your Research Grants

It is recommended that researchers use a standard format to acknowledge their funders e.g. "This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number xxxx]." or for multiple funders "This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Natural Environment Research Council [grant number zzzz]; and the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number aaaa]."

Funder Open Access Policies

Several funders mandate research outputs to be made open access either on the publisher website or by depositing a copy of the accepted manuscript in an institutional or subject repository within a set timeframe. If your research has been funded by one of the organisations listed below then you must follow their open access policy.

Funder Open Access Policies

See below for funder open access policies. If your funder is not listed here please check the terms and conditions of your grant to make sure that you are aware of your obligations when publishing your research findings. 

UKRI

UKRI OA policy for articles submitted from 1st of April 2022 and monographs published from 1st of January 2024

Wellcome Trust

Wellcome Trust 

Wellcome is a member of cOAlitionS and is committed to make all research articles open access. The Wellcome Trust open access policy applies to original research articles.  Reviews, editorials and other manuscript types are not in scope of the policy.

It is beneficiaries’ responsibility to publish any peer‐reviewed research papers wholly or partly funded by Wellcome in journals that are compliant with Wellcome’s Open Access policy. All papers must include details of the funding that supported the research and a statement explaining how other researchers can access any data, original software or materials underpinning the research (Wellcome’s data, software and materials management and sharing policy).

Researchers and organisations who do not comply with Wellcome open access policy might not be allowed to submit new grant applications. In extreme cases, current funds might be suspended.

When must your research output be made open access?

All original research articles must be made freely available via PubMed Central and Europe PubMed Central by the official final publication date.

Where there is a significant public health benefit to preprints being shared widely and rapidly, such as a disease outbreak, Wellcome requires the posting of preprints under CC BY licence.

Licence requirement

CC-BY for all outputs. CC-BY-ND licence is allowed if explicitly agreed with Wellcome Trust. The form on this page Wellcome Trust Applying for a No-Derivatives Licence can be used to request such exception.

How to make your research output open access

There are three routes to open access for Wellcome funded research. Routes 1 and 2 are preferred but where these are not possible route 3 will provide an alternative route to compliance with the open access policy.

Route 1

Publish in a fully OA journal or platform. Using this route, the publisher takes responsibility for making the Version of Record for the article freely available from Europe PMC at the time of publication.

Wellcome provides a small block grant for publishing in fully open access journals or (until Dec 2024) transformative journals.

Route 2

Publish in a hybrid (subscription)  journal through a transformative arrangement that is available to you via your organisation.

Under this route, the publisher takes responsibility for making the Version of Record for the articles freely available in Europe PMC at the time of publication, under a CC BY licence.

The Journal Checker Tool will let you know if a transformative arrangement for your preferred journal is available to you through your organisation.

Route 3

Publish in a hybrid (subscription) journal and take responsibility for making the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) freely available from Europe PMC at the time of publication under a CC-BY licence. Use the author manuscript submission system Europe PMC plus to deposit your AAM.

To grant a CC-BY licence for the author accepted manuscript, submissions of original research to peer-reviewed hybrid journals must include the following 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.' 

Include the statement in:

  • any cover letter that accompanies the submission
  • the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript. 

If you are unable to make the Version of Record or the Author Accepted Manuscript open access, then you may post a preprint under a CC BY licence. Wellcome will accept this as compliant with the policy in these situations. 

Please contact openresearch@abdn.ac.uk or use the Journal Checker Tool to confirm whether a journal is compliant before submitting your manuscript.

Useful links

Wellcome Trust – Monographs and book chapters

All original scholarly monographs and book chapters authored or co-authored by Wellcome grantholders as part of their grant-funded research, must be made freely available through NCBI Bookshelf PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC as soon as possible and no later than 6 months of the official final publication date.

Licence requirements - Monographs and book chapters

CC- BY, CC-BY-NC and CC-BY-NC-ND are acceptable options where a fee has been paid to make the work open access.

 

European Commission - Horizon 2020 - Marie Curie

Horizon 2020 open access policy

Horizon 2020 implemented open access policy refers to all peer-reviewed scientific publications relating to the project's results (including not only journal articles but also conference proceedings and long-text publications such as monographs, book chapters, edited volumes, etc.)

When must your research output be made open access?

Research outputs must be made available open access as soon as possible and at the latest upon on-line publication, through either gold or green open access route.

All publications must be deposited in a repository (even the gold open access one)

Beneficiaries of the grant must also aim to deposit and grant open access to the research data ('underlying data') at the same time as the publication, ideally in a data repository, however this is not mandatory.

Licence requirement

CC-BY preferred for either gold or green research outputs, but not mandatory, other Creative Commons licenses are accepted.

How to make your research output open access

Gold open access 

Article processing charges (APC) for gold open access publications in fully open access and hybrid journals are eligible for reimbursement during the duration of the project. The costs of 'gold' open access publications incurred once a project is completed cannot be refunded from that project's budget. Gold open access publication must be deposited in a repository of authors’ choice (see below).

The University also has several agreements with publishers that allow gold open access at no additional cost or at a discount.

Green open access 

The Accepted Manuscript must be deposited in the institutional or other repository with an embargo limit of 6 months for STEM subjects and 12 months for publications in the social sciences and humanities.

To provide support concerning compliance with Horizon 2020 embargo periods the Commission offers a model amendment to publishing agreements, which are often signed between authors and publishers.

Embargo exception: green open access with a longer embargo period is accepted for publications issued after the end of the funded project, if open access within the maximum acceptable embargo period cannot be provided without incurring in additional costs for gold open access.

It is researchers’ responsibility to select a journal that complies with Horizon 2020 self-archiving requirements. Please contact openaccess@abdn.ac.uk to confirm whether a journal is compliant before submitting your manuscript.

Open Research Europe: this an open access platform providing fast publication and open peer review for research stemming from Horizon 2020 funding across all subject areas. There is no charge to publish, and the platform allows you to meet the Horizon 2020 open access requirements.

Copyright

European Commission encourages authors to retain their copyright and grant adequate licences to publishers.

Repository

Institutional, subject- based and centralised repositories are all acceptable choices.

Recommended repositories are:

Useful links:

Marie Curie Open Access Policy

The policy applies to peer-reviewed, original research reports and systematic reviews that have been supported wholly or partly by Marie Curie. The policy does not apply to book chapters, editorials, opinion pieces or conference proceedings.

When must your research output be made open access?

Marie Curie funded research should be made available through Europe PubMed Central within six months of the date of publication.

Licence requirement

CC-BY preferred for either gold or green research outputs, but not mandatory, other Creative Commons licenses are accepted.

How to make your research output open access

Gold open access

Funds for gold open access publication cost should be budgeted at the time of grant submission; however, unspent Marie Curie grant funds may be used to cover Open Access costs for publications from grants that are still active.

Open Access publication fees can still be requested after the grant end date and Marie Curie will consider payment of this fee depending on the acknowledgement of Marie Curie funding and Marie Curie being a key funder.

More information about how to claim funds can be found here.

The University also has several agreements with publishers that allow affiliated corresponding authors to publish gold open access at no additional cost or at a discount.

Green open access

The Accepted Manuscript must be deposited in Europe PMC with an embargo limit of 6 months.

Association of Medical Research Charities’ (AMRC) Open Research Platform hosted by F1000: This an open access platform providing fast publication and open peer review for research for research funded by the participating AMRC member charities (i.e. Marie Curie). The platform is compliant with Marie Curie open access requirements: articles that have passed peer review will be indexed in PubMed and other scientific databases and will be published open access under a CC-BY licence (more information here).

Article Processing Charges apply; Marie curie will consider payment of this fee as described in the gold open access section above.

Useful links

European Commission - Horizon Europe

European Commission – Horizon Europe open access policy

Horizon Europe (HEU) is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation launched in 2021. One of its aims, is increasing the current standard of dissemination of knowledge with a new open science policy by sharing research outputs, tools and data as soon as possible.

Open access policy for peer-reviewed scientific publications
Open access policy for monographs

Scientific publications - when must your research output be made open access?

All peer-reviewed scientific publications must be made open access at the latest at the time of publication via either green or gold open access. A machine-readable electronic copy of the published version (VOR) or the final peer-reviewed author accepted manuscript (AAM), must be deposited in a trusted repository for scientific publications.

All publications must be deposited in a trusted repository (even the gold open access one!)

In addition, information about research underlying data, any other tools and instruments needed to validate the conclusions of the scientific publication must be made available in a repository on publication.

Licence requirement

CC-BY or a licence with equivalent rights for gold and green open access outputs. This means that AAM deposited on a trusted repository must be immediately open access – i.e. embargo is not allowed.

Embargo: no embargo allowed

How to make your research output open access

Gold open access
Only publication fees in full open access venues (e.g. fully open access journal as listed in DOAJ), for peer-reviewed scientific publications are eligible for reimbursement from the HEU grant. 

The University also has several agreements with publishers that allow gold open access at no additional cost or at a discount.

Open Research Europe (ORE) platform: this an open access platform providing fast publication and open peer review for research stemming from Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe funding across all subject areas. This has no publishing fees. If ORE is selected as the publishing venue, all open access to scientific publication requirements will be fulfilled by the beneficiary.

Green open access
Author can publish in a hybrid or closed (subscription) venue, as long as immediate open access is provided to the deposited AAM via the trusted repository at the same time as publication, under CC BY or a licence with equivalent rights.

It is researchers’ responsibility to select a journal that complies with HEU self-archiving requirements. Please contact openaccess@abdn.ac.uk or use the PlanS Journal Checker Tool to confirm whether a journal is compliant before submitting your manuscript.

Trusted repository

Trusted repositories are disciplinary and domain repositories commonly used and endorsed by the research communities and recognised internationally. 

Recommended repositories that meet HEU criteria are: 

We strongly advise to also upload your accepted manuscript to the University of Aberdeen repository AURA. Once your research output is accepted, send an email to paperaccepted@abdn.ac.uk with a copy of your AAM and the acceptance email, and the open access team will upload your manuscript on the repository on your behalf. 

Open access requirements for data

Researchers funded by HEU are required to establish a data management plan (DMP), and regularly update it. 
Researchers must:

  • deposit the data in a trusted repository; if required in the call conditions, this repository must be federated in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) in compliance with EOSC requirements 
  • ensure open access as soon as possible and within the deadlines set out in the DMP to the deposited data via the repository, under the latest available version of the Creative Commons License (CC BY) or Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC 0) or a licence with equivalent rights.
  • provide information via the repository about any research output or any other tools and instruments needed to re-use or validate the data. 

If open access is not provided (to some or all data), this must be justified in the DMP. 

Monographs - When must your monograph be made open access?

The beneficiary must provide immediate open access upon publication through either gold (published version (VoR) is open access) or green (the author accepted manuscript (AAM) is deposited on a trusted repository and made available open access on publication date) route. 

Licence requirement

CC BY-NC or CC BY-ND for VOR and AAM.

How to make your research output open access

Gold open access

If the venue meets the open access criteria, then the publication fees (including open access fees) can be reimbursed from the Horizon Europe grant. The publishing fees for open access monographs will cover the first digital open access edition of the book (which could include different formats such as html, pdf, epub, etc). Printing fees for the monographs and other books are not eligible.

Green open access

The publication fees would have to be covered by other funds and the beneficiary will still have to deposit an AAM or VOR under a CC BY-NC or CC BY-ND licence in a trusted repository at the same time as publication (no embargo period allowed).

Trusted repository

The repository needs to not only provide open access to the deposited monograph, but also support the metadata of the deposited monograph in the repository, under a CC 0 public domain dedication. Such repositories should be recognised internationally.

The OAPEN Open Books library is likely to fulfil the requirements of a trusted repository, however, the OAPEN website has not currently been updated to take into account the open access changes under Horizon Europe.

Useful links:

British Heart Foundation

BHF Open Access Policy

This policy applies to original research articles and non-commissioned reviews funded wholly or in part by BHF. Grantholders must acknowledge BHF support by quoting “This work was supported by British Heart Foundation, followed by the award reference number” in the appropriate section of all publications arising from BHF funded research.

When must your research output be made open access?

Research outputs (final published version or accepted manuscript) must be made freely available in Europe PubMed Central as soon as possible and no later than 6 months after publication.

Grant holders are responsible to find out prior submission to a journal whether the publisher open access policy is compliant with BHF open access requirement. Information on journal compliance can be found using the Sherpa/Fact database, or by contacting the Scholarly Communications Team at openaccess@abdn.ac.uk

If a researcher wishes to publish in a journal that will not allow deposition in Europe PMC and open access within 6 months of publication, a case must be made in advance to BHF (research@bhf.org.uk), and granted in exceptional circumstances.

Licence requirement

CC-BY for gold open access research output.

How to make your research output open access?

Gold open access

Many journals will deposit the final published version of the article on behalf of the authors directly into Europe PMC (list of participating journals) to be made freely available immediately on publication.

The University of Aberdeen has a BHF fund that can be used to pay APCs for gold open access with a CC BY license. Please follow this link for further information or contact openaccess@abdn.ac.uk to confirm eligibility and make sure that there are funds available before submitting your manuscript.

BHF open access fund cannot be used to pay APCs for commissioned or invited review articles, conference proceedings, editorials, letters or commentaries and any other charges associated with publication, such as page and colour charges.

The University also has several agreements with publishers that allow gold open access at no additional cost or at a discount.

Green open access  

Journals may deposit the accepted peer-reviewed manuscript in Europe PMC to be made freely available after a 6 month embargo period; usually no APC fee is charged for this service.

In some cases, the journal will not deposit the article but will allow the authors to deposit a copy of the accepted peer-reviewed manuscript in Europe PMC to be made freely available after an embargo period. Europe PMC has an author manuscript submission system for authors to self-archive papers.

Embargo

The maximum embargo allowed is 6 months

Useful links

Cancer Research UK

CRUK - Cancer Research UK open access policy

The policy applies to original research articles and Cochrane reviews which acknowledge a Cancer Research UK grant published in peer-reviewed journals after the 1st of October 2014.

The policy does not apply to reviews, commentaries, editorials, book chapters and monographs.

CRUK’s support must be acknowledged in the format ‘This work was supported by Cancer Research UK [followed by your Grant Reference number as detailed on your Grant Award Letter. This will be in the format ‘C1234/A5678’ or ‘XXXX\123456’ and, for trial results, the CRUK trial number]’.

When must your research output be made open access?

Articles accepted before the 1st of January 2022: author accepted manuscripts (AAM) or version of records (VOR) of research outputs funded by Cancer Research UK must be made available on Europe PMC as soon as possible and no later than six months after publication.

AAM or VOR of articles accepted for publication after 1st of January 2022 must be made openly available in Europe PMC immediately on publication (i.e. a 6-month embargo will not be permitted).

Licence requirement

CC-BY where APCs for gold open access have been paid. If the output is published via green open access, CRUK encourages, though does not require, to apply CC BY licence to the AAM.

Embargo: maximum 6 months; No embargo allowed after 1st January 2022

How to make your research output open access

Gold open access

Publish in a fully open access or hybrid journal which makes the Version of Record open access immediately on publication. Cancer Research UK has confirmed that it will not provide a block grant to the University of Aberdeen. Researchers may use any unspent grant funds to pay for APCs.

The University also has several agreements with publishers that allow gold open access at no additional cost or at a discount.

Green open access 

Publish in a subscription journal that allows to deposit the Author Accepted Manuscript (or Version or Record, where the journal permits) in Europe PMC without embargo. 

Researchers can use SHERPA/FACT database to check whether their chosen journal is compliant.

Additional requirements

Researchers must provide the CRUK Press Team with a copy of all publications and conference abstracts arising from the Grant Activities at the time of submission for publication via the online manuscript submission form on CRUK’s website or press.office@cancer.org.uk. Any manuscripts and details will be held in the strictest confidence

Useful links

Cancer Research UK open access policy and FAQ

contact: policies@cancer.org.uk

Chief Scientist Office

CSO – Chief Scientist Office open access policy

The policy applies to peer-reviewed articles that acknowledge CSO.

When must your research output be made open access?

The final, peer reviewed manuscript or the author accepted manuscript must be deposited in PMC or EuropePMC on publication or no later than six months after publication.

Licence requirement

Any creative commons license will comply.

Embargo: maximum 6 months

How to make your research output open access

  • Gold open access

Funded researchers can apply to CSO for up to £8000 per grant towards the costs of Open Access publishing of a paper arising from a CSO funded research project. Such applications are valid up to 18 months after completion of the project and should be made after the paper has been accepted for publication. Application should be made on Form6a available on CSO open access policy page.  

The University also has several agreements with publishers that allow gold open access at no additional cost or at a discount.

  • Green open access 

Funded authors must deposit the author accepted manuscript (after peer-review version) in PMC/EuropePMC no later than six months after the journal publisher’s official date of final publication.

In case the journal of choice does not allow deposit of the accepted manuscript in PMC authors should request an exception from the journal and include the following wording to the copyright agreement:

'Notwithstanding any of the other provisions of this agreement, the journal acknowledges that the researcher will be entitled to deposit an electronic copy of the final, peer-reviewed manuscript into Europe PubMed Central (EuropePMC) and for this manuscript to be mirrored to all PMC international sites. Manuscripts deposited with EuropePMC may be made freely available to the public, via the internet, within six months of the official date of final publication in the journal.'

If the journal doesn’t allow this, then the author should reconsider where to publish.

Authors are encouraged to use the SHERPA/FACT database to assess whether a journal is compliant with Versus Arthritis open access policy prior to submission.

Useful links

National Institute for Health Research

NIHR - National Institute for Health Research open access policy

NIHR open access policy applies to any peer-reviewed research articles (including non-commissioned review articles, final reports or executive summaries) that are supported in whole or in part by NIHR funding and submitted for publication from 1 April 2014 until the 1st of June 2022 - for articles submitted on or after the 1st of June 2022 see the new NIHR open access policy - . The policy does not cover books, critical editions, volumes and catalogues, or forms of non-peer-reviewed material. Authors are encouraged to make such material open access where possible.

When must your research output be made open access?

NIHR-funded research must be published in peer-reviewed, open access journals and the final published version must be deposited in Europe PMC within six months of the journal publisher’s official date of final publication.

NIHR requires researchers to prepare and submit to the NIHR a statement on how underlying research materials, such as data, samples or models, can be accessed. However, the policy does not require that the data must be made open (View the NIHR data policy).

Licence requirement

CC-BY (no other license permitted)

How to publish in fully open access journals

The cost of APCs and other appropriate publication charges will be supported through NIHR funding award. This applies to recipients of NIHR funding after 1st April 2014. For enquiries on covering open access costs researchers can visit the NIHR webpages. 

The University of Aberdeen also has several agreements with publishers that allow gold open access at no additional cost or at a discount.

Copyright

NIHR encourages authors to retain their copyright.

Useful links

National Institute for Health Research NEW POLICY - from 1st of June 2022

NIHR new open access policy applies to peer-reviewed articles, including reviews not commissioned by publishers and conference papers, describing NIHR funded research findings submitted on or after 1st of June 2022 and arising from:

Research articles must include:

Monographs, non-peer-reviewed material and personal awards that do not fund research are out of scope of this policy.

When must your research output be made open access?

The Version of Record or the Author Accepted Manuscript must be made freely available through PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC by the official final publication date, without any embargo period.

Embargo: no embargo allowed

Embargo exception: Peer-reviewed research articles which are out of scope, but which acknowledge NIHR support/funding must be deposited and made freely accessible through Europe PMC no later than 12 months post the official final publication date

Licence requirement

CC BY or Open Government Licence (OGL) when subject to Crown Copyright for gold and green research outputs. To apply the licence to the Author Accepted Manuscript (for green open access outputs), 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’] to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising"

Exception: CC BY ND may be permitted on a case-by-case basis.

Open access funds:

The cost of APCs and other appropriate publication charges will be supported by NIHR. Guidance on open access funding eligibility and process will be published by March 2022.

The University of Aberdeen also has several agreements with publishers that allow gold open access at no additional cost or at a discount.

Repository requirements

All articles must be long-term archived and freely discoverable through PMC and Europe PMC.

This should not prevent researchers from also depositing a copy in their institutional or another subject-based repository.

For the Global Health Research portfolio, NIHR encourages authors to deposit in Europe PMC, although an appropriate and sustainable local institutional, national or regional repository may be used instead, where available. The chosen repository must follow the standards described in the technical standards for journals, publishing platforms and repositories.

Useful links:

Versus Arthritis UK

Versus Arthritis UK open access policy

Versus Arthritis open access policy applies to original research papers submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. The policy does not extend to editorials, letters, commissioned reviews, non-commissioned reviews, scholarly monographs, conference proceedings or book chapters.

The Versus Arthritis grant number must be accurately acknowledged on the paper – e.g. This work was supported by Versus Arthritis [grant number xxxxx]”–.

When must your research output be made open access?

Any articles accepted for publication that are wholly or partially funded by Versus Arthritis must be deposited in Europe PMC as soon as possible and no later than six months after publication.

Licence requirement

CC-BY where APCs for gold open access have been paid.

Embargo: maximum 6 months

How to make your research output open access

Gold open access 

Versus Arthritis UK is keen to support gold open access publications, however the budget is limited. Funded authors can make open access funding requests directly to Versus Arthritis via their Grant Tracker account at https://gt.versusarthritis.org/login.

The University also has several agreements with publishers that allow gold open access at no additional cost or at a discount.

Green open access 

Funded authors must self-archive their publication in Europe PMC within six months of publication. Please note, a small number of journals do not allow this, and the policy doesn’t allow embargo exceptions.

Authors are encouraged to use the SHERPA/FACT database to assess whether a journal is compliant with Versus Arthritis UK open access policy prior to submission.

Useful links