Cancer Research UK (CRUK) have changed how they are supporting Open Access (OA) publishing. From the 1st of October 2026, CRUK no longer provide financial support to institutions to pay any publishing costs. CRUK-funded research must continue to be made openly available, with unrestricted access.
CRUK requirements
For any research paper accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, CRUK researchers are expected to:
- Make the work available (either author accepted manuscript or version of record) through Europe PMC, immediately on publication or no later than six months after publication (where an embargo is applied).
- If published open access, use a CC BY 4.0 licence.
- Acknowledge funding on the format “This work was supported by Cancer Research UK [Cref./A ref. OR XXXX\123456]’)” and, for trial results, the Cancer Research UK trial number.
- If patient data used, use the patient data citation: https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/data-citation.
- Include a data availability statement.
Options for open access
All researchers should consider their publishing options before they submit a manuscript, or if their publication is delayed or transferred to a new journal or publisher.
Authors can self-archive their author accepted manuscript, at no cost, under a CC BY licence, through the Newcastle University Research Publication and Copyright Policy, also known as our Rights Retention Policy (RRP).
Our publisher agreements allow Newcastle University staff and students who act as corresponding authors to publish OA without additional charges, or receive a discount on article processing charges (APCs). Be aware that agreements vary and are subject to change.
If authors choose to publish in a journal that charges an APC and is not covered by an agreement, any fees would need to be paid by the author(s). Newcastle University does manage open access block grants from UK Research and Innovation, British Heart Foundation and Wellcome, where these funders are acknowledged, see the individual pages for more details.
Library Research Services are here to help you understand your options. For any questions, contact us at openaccess@ncl.ac.uk.
