The REF (Research Excellence Framework) 2029 Open Access (OA) policy details the requirements for making eligible research outputs open access during the REF 2029 assessment period between 2021 and 2028.
Open Access Policy
The OA policy applies to journal articles and conference proceedings with an ISSN that are published after 1 January 2021. It does not apply to any other research outputs, such as chapters, books, data, etc, although REF encourages researchers to move beyond the minimum requirements and apply open practices where possible to all outputs.
For inclusion in the REF OA submission, a version of the published article must be made open access, i.e. deposited, made accessible and discoverable, within the expected timeframes. The guidance for outputs published after 1 January 2026 has been updated, and the table below summarisies the key details.
| REF 2021 Open Access Policy guidance | REF 2029 Open Access Policy guidance | |
|---|---|---|
| Published between | 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025 | 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028 |
| Deposit | the author accepted manuscript (AAM) must be deposited in a repository within 90 days of acceptance | the author accepted manuscript (AAM) or version of record (VoR) must be deposited in a repository or suitable platform within 90 days of publication |
| Accessible | within 30 days of publication or of an embargo period | once published or at end of embargo period |
| Licence | minimum requirement CC BY-NC-ND | CC BY, but CC BY-NC or CC BY-ND or equivalent permitted |
| Permitted embargo period | 12 months for papers submitted to Panels A & B 24 months for papers submitted to Panels C & D | 6 months for papers submitted to Panels A & B 12 months for papers submitted to Panels C & D |
| Exceptions | Specific exceptions are definied in the REF 2021 exceptions section | Specific exceptions are definied in the REF 2029 exceptions section |
Outputs made immediately open access on publication, provided they meet the deposit, access and licence criteria, will meet REF OA requirements. Note, there is no expectation that additional open access publication costs are required to meet REF 2029 OA policy requirements.
Newcastle University Guidance
We advise that Newcastle University authors continue to deposit their AAM in our institutional repository as soon as possible after acceptance. Following deposit, the open access team will review uploaded manuscripts and contact authors to discuss any issues in meeting the open access requirements for REF. In line with the University Research Publications & Copyright Policy, for any articles published after August 2023, the AAM will be made available open access in the University’s repository under a CC BY licence, on the article publication date, unless an embargo is required (see above for permitted embargo periods).
Detailed instructions of the policy requirements and how to make your paper REF eligible are available on our Open Access for REF page. Some exceptions to the policy are permitted for outputs that do not meet the OA requirements, details of how to apply for these are also shown on that page.
For more information or to arrange a discussion, please contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk.
*The author accepted manuscript (AAM) is the version after peer review and containing all academically necessary changes, but before publisher copy-editing, proofing and typesetting of the peer-reviewed accepted manuscript.
