NIHR

NIHR Policy Summary

The new NIHR Open Access publication policy applies to all peer-reviewed research articles, including reviews not commissioned by publishers and conference papers, submitted for publication on or after 1 June 2022 and arising from research supported through NIHR funding. For such publications the most up to date 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.

The publication must be licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY) or Open Government Licence (OGL) where subject to Crown Copyright. NIHR may permit, on a case-by-case basis, the use of a more restrictive Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives licence (CC BY-ND) for the open access version of a research article. Authors can request a CC BY-ND licence on an NIHR Open Access request form.

Compliance with this policy is possible via the Gold and Green routes to open access as described below. See also the NIHR compliance checklist.

NIHR Gold open access

NIHR researchers can comply with this policy by publishing in fully open access journals or complaint platforms such as NIHR Open Research. NIHR will pay reasonable fees required by a publisher to support this. However, NIHR funds cannot be used to cover non-open access charges associated with publication, for example page and colour charges. 

When publishing in subscription/hybrid journals gold open access is possible where the article is covered by a transformative agreement with the publisher. There is no additional cost to authors for this. However, NIHR will not pay for individual articles in hybrid journals to be made open access outside of such agreements and reseachers should follow the green route as described below.

From 1 June 2022 new research awards issued across NIHR Programmes, NIHR Personal Awards and NIHR Global Health Research Portfolio will have an open access funding 'envelope' allocated, on top of the approved cost of the award, which is ring-fenced for eligible open access costs. Researchers can therefore no longer include open access costs in their applications.

Contractors should manage and spend funds for open access publishing costs in the same way as any other agreed costs. Any remaining open access funds will remain available for 2 years after the contract completion date. If the open access envelope, or budgeted open access funds, is depleted, grantholders can apply to NIHR for additional funding.

Awards with contracts issued before 1 June 2022 should use the open access budget included in their overall research costs. For NIHR Infrastructure awards, including NIHR research units and schools, open access costs should continue to be budgeted and earmarked at application. Contractors are expected to manage open access funding equitably, transparently, and in accordance with the open access policy throughout the duration of the award.

Further information is available in NIHR's open access funding guidance.

NIHR Green open access

NIHR researchers can comply with this policy when publishing in subscription journals not covered by a transformative agreement by making the accepted manuscript open access in Europe PubMed Central from publication and with a CC BY or OGL licence (or CC BY-ND if pre-approved by NIHR).

To facilitate this submissions to subscription journals must include the following text (amended to state the appropriate licence) in the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript and any cover letter/note accompanying the submission:

Note, where required an ‘Open Government Licence’, or where permitted by the NIHR a Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence, may be stated instead.

We would also encourage authors to upload the accepted manuscript to MyImpact to facilitate reporting on compliance with the open access requirements for REF.

Deposit in ePrints via MyImpact

Please note that the publishing agreements of many journals impose terms that would not currently allow compliance via this route. Authors may therefore need to retain the right to make their accepted manuscript open access on publication under the CC BY licence. Please refer to our guidance on the University Research Publications & Copyright Policy for more information on how we can support you with this.

References

NIHR Open Access publication policy

NIHR Open Access publications funding guidance

NIHR Open Access request forms

Former NIHR open access policy (for publications submitted prior to 01/06/2022)