UKRI Policy for long-form publications
This page is for long-form publications, for research articles see UKRI open access policy for research articles.
If you are considering a long-form publication, or are currently in the process of publication, please contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk or complete the form below to discuss options.
Contact us for help with your UKRI long-form publication
Scope
The UKRI open access policy for long-form publications applies to:
- Monographs, book chapters and edited collections. Trade books are included where the only output of the UKRI-funded research.
- Acknowledge funding from AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, STFC, Innovate UK or Research England.
- Published on or after 1 Janurary 2024.
- Published within seven years of the formal end of the UKRI-funded project. If seven or more years after, it will no longer be eligible for financial support, and UKRI do not expect it to be made open access.
The policy also applies to peer-reviewed research articles, including reviews and conference papers submitted on or after 1 April 2022.
How to comply
For in-scope publications, the final Version of Record (VoR) or the Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM), including, where possible, any images, illustrations, tables and other supporting content, must be free to view and download via an online publication platform, publishers’ website, or institutional or subject repository within a maximum of 12 months of publication. The AAM should be clearly marked as not the final published version.
The open access version must have a Creative Commons licence. A Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence is preferred, but other Creative Commons licences are permitted. An Open Government Licence is also permitted when authors are subject to Crown Copyright. Third-party material may be included under a more restrictive licence or an 'All Rights Researved' basis.
The publication must acknowledge UKRI funding to be considered in-scope of the policy. This should be a sentence with the funding agency written out in full, followed by the grant number in square brackets (if you have one). For example:
‘This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number xxxx]’.
UKRI recognise there may be instances where it is not possible to meet the open access requirements for long-form publications and appropriate exemptions may apply, see below.
Exemptions
UKRI recognises that there may be instances where meeting open access requirements for long-form publications is not possible. The following exemptions may then apply:
- where the only appropriate publisher, after liaison and consideration, is unable to offer an open access option that complies with UKRI's policy.
- this includes no self-archiving policy for monographs, book chapters or edited collections, and self-archiving of either the Version of Record or the Author’s Accepted Manuscript is not possible.
- where a contract was signed with a publisher before 1 January 2024, that prevents compliance with the policy.
- where a monograph, book chapter or edited collections is the outcome of a UKRI training grant and this is the only UKRI funding source acknowledged. UKRI encourages making such outputs open access but it is not required.
- where permission for reuse of third-party materials cannot be obtained, and no suitable alternative option is available to enable open access publication.
- where Research England funding has been used but outputs cannot be attributed directly to Research England funding and no acknowledgement of Research England funding is expected or necessary.
If an exemption may apply, please contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk. Exemptions should be discussed with the chosen publisher and the library.
If you are publishing a trade book that acknowledges UKRI funding but is not open access, please also contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk.
UKRI funds
UKRI will provide a dedicated open access fund for monographs, book chapters and edited collections from January 2024 when making the VoR open access on publication. This will be a centralised fund held by UKRI that organisations will apply for rather than individual authors or editors. Applications for this fund opened 28 November 2023. Please contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk for further information.
If you believe your publication is eligible for UKRI funds please submit an application below.
Apply for UKRI long-form publication funds
UKRI will contribute up to the following maximums (inclusive of VAT, where applicable):
- £10,000 for book processing charges
- £1,000 for chapter processing charges
- £6,000 for participation in an alternative open access model (not exceeding the total cost of participation), UKRI will fund up to another £3,000 where there are two or more eligible outputs
Up to £2,000 within the funding maximum for an output can be applied for to support costs associated with clearing permissions for third-party content to be included in the open access version of the publication. However, these costs should be accounted for in grant applications, where possible.
Note, if the costs for publication exceed the UKRI maxumiums, it is not allowable to top up from research grants. If research grants explicity include costs for open access to longform publications these must be used first before applying to the fund.
Publisher options
The pilot Jisc tool Open Access for Books offers an overview of publishers' book policies, which may help when considering options. More publishers will be added over time.
You should choose the publisher most approriate for your research. When choosing a publisher, and before entering any contract:
- contact the publisher and inform them that your publication acknowledges UKRI funding and must meet the reqirements of the policy.
- identify what open access routes they offer for the version of record or the author's accepted manuscript.
Useful resources
The JISC guide: An introduction to UKRI’s fund for longform outputs.
The OAPEN OA Books Toolkit aims to help book authors to better understand open access book publishing and to increase trust in open access books.
Am I eligible for funding?
If you ackowledge UKRI funding in your manuscript, you can apply for funds from UKRI through the library.
If you acknowledge the Wellcome Trust, please see the 'Monographs and book chapters' section on the Wellcome Trust Policy page.
If you acknowledge a different funder or are not funded, we are happy to discuss your options with you.
Contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk for further details.
Do I include long-form costs in my grant application?
From 31 October 2023, it is no longer permitted to include publication costs for long-form publications in-scope of the open access policy in research funding applications.
An exception to this is anticipated costs for clearing rights for third-party materials such as images that will be needed to publish your research. These should continue to be included in research funding applications.
If you have included open access costs in your grant application, you must use this funding for open access publications instead of applying to the dedicated fund.
See the UKRI open access funding and reporting for further details.
What if I signed my contract before 1st January 2024?
You can still publish your UKRI-funded monograph open access.
If your publisher offers a compliant open access option, UKRI will fund charges regardless of when you signed your contract (provided all other requirements are met).
Contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk to discuss your options.
My publisher allows Green open access publication, do I need to apply?
The UKRI Open Access policy permits compliance without cost, provided the version of record or author's accepted manuscript is free to view and download via an online publication platform, publishers’ website, or institutional or subject repository within a maximum of 12 months of publication.
Contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk to discuss the options permitted by your publisher.
What if my book doesn't acknowledge UKRI or acknowledges a different funder?
If your publication does not acknowledge any funder, there is no requirement for you to publish open access. However, the University would encourage open access where possible, such as through the deposition of your author accepted manuscript into the institutional repository.
If you acknowledge the Wellcome Trust, please see the 'Monographs and book chapters' section on the Wellcome Trust Policy page.
If you acknowledge a different funder, please check their publications policy for any open access requirements.
We are happy to discuss your options with you. Contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk for further details.
My publisher charges more than the UKRI maximum, does that mean I cannot comply?
No, please contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk to discuss your options.
How do I apply and exemption? Do I have to tell anyone?
UKRI want to be notified when an exemption is applied.
Contact the open access team if you think an exemption applies, as compliance may still be possible.
What outputs are out-of-scope of the policy?
UKRI’s open access policy does not apply to the following long-form outputs:
- trade books, as defined above, unless they are the only output from UKRI-funded research
- scholarly editions. Defined as an edition of another author’s original work or body of works informed by critical evaluation of the sources (such as earlier manuscripts, texts, documents and letters), often with a scholarly introduction and explanatory notes or analysis on the text or original author
- exhibition catalogues
- scholarly illustrated catalogues
- textbooks
- all types of fictional works and creative writing
Training grants and PhD outputs
For PhD students, the policy focuses on the UKRI-funded research outputs produced rather than the circumstances of the researcher. Policy exemptions would apply to outputs rather than authors.
However if the output is a the result of a training grant an exemption can apply:
"where a monograph, book chapter or edited collection is the outcome of a UKRI Training Grant. Where possible, UKRI expects research organisations to support researchers to make such outputs open access. However, it recognises that publication may occur sometime beyond the lifetime of a training grant"
Please note that requirements for the publication of theses in the UKRI standard terms and conditions of training grants still apply.
There is an expectation that UKRI-funded PhD theses will be published open access with a maximum 12 month embargo, and that any book derived from a UKRI-funded PhD/thesis that acknowledges UKRI would be expected to comply with the OA policy.
Book chapter
Written scholarly output, formally published for the first time, together with similar outputs from other authors in a single publication, forming a permanently identifiable set of contributions on a common theme, bearing an International Standard Book Number (ISBN). This includes chapters in academic books arising from conferences.
Edited collection
Written scholarly output in which individual chapters or contributions have been written by different authors, and whereby the contributions from each author are intellectually distinct. This includes edited book collections arising from conferences.
An edited book collection may arise from a conference, but it is constructed as a publication in its own right rather than reproducing the proceedings of the conference.
In-scope edited collections must acknowledge UKRI funding and where the editor(s) satisfy at least one of the following conditions:
- the editor(s) of the collection has sole responsibility for curating the publication
- the editor(s) of the collection has made a substantial contribution to the editing, choices for inclusion and underpinning process of investigation in the publication
The complete edited collection must be made available open access, regardless of whether the authors of chapters comprising a collection were or are supported by UKRI.
Trade book
An academic monograph or edited collection rooted in original scholarship that has a broad public audience, a trade book is only in scope of the policy where it is the only output from UKRI-funded research.
The decision of whether a book is considered trade book or academic monograph is at the discretion of the author and publisher. Decision-making should be informed by:
- the intended audience for the publication is the broader public and not primarily an academic audience
- marketing activities that seek to reach a broad public readership
- sales and pricing models which may include large discounts to retailers
- breadth of distribution channels and networks to reach a broad public audience and not primarily via scholarly channels
- inclusion of additional scholarly materials such as appendices, citations and footnotes
- inclusion of materials for marketability
A book chapter may be exempt from the policy if the edited collection within which it is published is a trade book.
Out-of-scope long-form publications
UKRI’s open access policy does not apply to the following long-form outputs:
- trade books, as defined above, unless they are the only output from UKRI-funded research
- scholarly editions. Defined as an edition of another author’s original work or body of works informed by critical evaluation of the sources (such as earlier manuscripts, texts, documents and letters), often with a scholarly introduction and explanatory notes or analysis on the text or original author
- exhibition catalogues
- scholarly illustrated catalogues
- textbooks
- all types of fictional works and creative writing