Many UK and International research institutions and funders mandate Open Access for some publication types. Below, you will find information that outlines the key aspects of open access policies in the UK and international policies.
If you have any questions about Open Access policies, or if you would like more information about the policy presented at a team or departmental meeting, please contact us at .
If you would like to check whether an output deposited in the Institutional Repository is compliant with one of the following policies, please email the repository team with details of the publication at .
Who? The policy applies to all staff and PGRs. Other students are encouraged to comply.
What? All scholarly outputs authored or co-authored while affiliated with the University of Warwick.
When? The latest version of the policy came into force on 1 October 2025.
How? To comply, authors must do the following:
List the "University of Warwick" as your affiliation on all works associated with research undertaken at the University.
Deposit outputs in the Institutional Repository as soon as possible after acceptance, and no later than three months after first online publication.
Ensure that you comply with funders’ requirements, include listing your funder’s name and grant number on any publications according to your funder’s expectations.
Include a statement on how any underlying research materials – such as data, samples or models – can be accessed.
As part of the update on the 1st October 2025, the policy now includes an Institutional Rights Retention Policy to support Open Access compliance: The University confirms that staff members own the copyright of their scholarly works, and staff agree to allow the University to make their accepted manuscripts publicly available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.
The REF exercise evaluates the quality of research in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) roughly every seven years, and informs the allocation of funding for research. For journal articles and conference papers to be eligible for assessment, they must meet the REF's Open Access policy.
Who? All researchers whose outputs may be submitted to the REF2029 - this predominantly applies to staff.
What? Applies to Journal Articles and Conference Papers only. The policy does NOT include Longform publications (e.g. Books, Book Chapters and Edited Collections) at least for REF2029.
When? Outputs published from 1st Jan 2021 to 31st Dec 2028 must comply. Outputs published from the 1st Jan 2026 onwards are subject to the updated version of the policy (see below).
How? Authors can comply by either the Gold (Publisher-Supported) or Green (Repository-Supported) Open Access route, as long as the following conditions are met:
The output is deposited in an institutional repository within 3 months of publication - even if this does not exceed the output's embargo.
The output may be embargoed (delayed from being made open in a repository) as long as the embargo is within the permitted maximum period: 6 months for Panels A and B; 12 months for Panels C and D.
The output must be available under an Open Access licence.
The output is deposited in an institutional repository within 3 months of acceptance - even if this does not exceed the output's embargo.
The output may be embargoed (delayed from being made open in a repository) as long as the embargo is within the permitted maximum period: 12 months for Panels A and B; 24 months for Panels C and D.
While the policy has other requirements, such as technical and access requirements, these are managed for you by the repository team. To comply simply ensure that you deposit your accepted manuscript in the repository as soon as possible after acceptance, and no later than three months after first online publication.
If you research has been funded by an external funder, you may have additional Open Access requirements that you need to comply with. Below, you will find information that outlines the open access policies for many of the University of Warwick's main funders, including how to comply with these policies. If your funder is not listed below, or if you still have questions about what these policies mean and how you should comply, please email the Open Research team at .
UKRI (including Research England, Innovate UK, and all UKRI Research Councils)
UKRI have an open access policy that covers any journal articles and conference papers acknowledging UKRI funding submitted for publishing on or after 1st April 2022. In order to comply with the policy, these articles must:
be made available immediately at the point of publication, either via Gold or Green Open Access. (i.e. have no embargo).
include the following rights retention statement to the submitted version of the article (to ensure compliance with the above to points):
"For the purpose of open access, the author(s) has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence [where permitted by UKRI, ‘Open Government Licence’ or ‘Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence’ may be stated instead] to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising"
have a Data Access Statement, even where there is no data associated with the article or the data are inaccessible.
be archived in Europe PubMed Central, if the article acknowledges funding from MRC and/or BBSRC.
The full UKRI Open Access policy can be found here. For support with complying with the policy, get in touch with the Open Research Team.
Ensure that you include the rights retention statement in the submitted manuscript of any article you submit.
At acceptance, deposit the author's accepted manuscript in WRAP to ensure it can be made Open Access at the point of publication.
If you plan to comply via the Gold Route, please ensure that the journal is eligible for funding/ is covered by a Read and Publish Agreement. If you are unsure, contact the Open Research Team.
Apply for APC funding from the UKRI Block Grant, as long as you are publishing in a Gold Open Access Journals (the Block Grant cannot be used to pay for APCs for articles published in Hybrid journals)
UKRI have an open access policy that covers any longform publications (including books, book chapters and edited collections) published on or after 1st January 2024 and within 7 years of the formal end of the associated UKRI funded project. In order to comply with the policy, the publication:
must be made available within 12 months of publication, either via Gold or Green Open Access.
should include third-party materials (such as images, photographs, diagrams or maps).
The full UKRI Open Access policy can be found here. For support with complying with the policy, get in touch with the Open Research Team.
UKRI have outlined a list of exceptions that can be applied to certain publications that cannot/should not meet the policy. These exceptions include:
where the contract was signed with a publisher before 1st January 2024.
where the only appropriate publisher, after liaison and consideration, is unable to offer an open access option that complies with UKRI’s policy.
where a monograph, book chapter or edited collection is the outcome of a UKRI Training Grant.
where the longform publication type is out of scope of the policy. Out of scope longform publications include trade books (that is not the only output of the funding), a scholarly edition, an exhibition catalogue, a scholarly illustrated catalogue, a textbook or a form of fictional work/creative writing.
At acceptance, deposit the author's accepted manuscript in WRAP to ensure it can be made Open Access at the point of publication.
At the point of making an agreement with the publisher, you should discuss what Open Access options they offer. If you would find advice around doing this useful, please contact the Open Research Team.
Check out the Open Access Books page to find out more about making your books Open Access.
Use this Open Access books toolkit which explains more about the process of publishing a book Open Access.
Apply for UKRI BPC funding. Please note the applications for funding MUST be done prior to publication. Applications for funding cannot exceed £10,000 (including VAT) for entire monographs/ edited collections, or £1,000 (including VAT) for book chapters. Within these caps, up to £2,000 can be claimed for acquiring rights to third party material. You may need to discuss these figures with your publisher, and if you have any concerns, get in touch with the Open Research team.
Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust have an open access policy that applies to journal articles. In order to comply with the policy, these articles must:
be made available immediately at the point of publication, either via Gold or Green Open Access. (i.e. have no embargo).
include the following rights retention statement to the submitted version of the article (to ensure compliance with the above to points):
“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.”
have a Data Access Statement, even where there is no data associated with the article or the data are inaccessible.
The full Wellcome Trust Open Access policy can be found here. For support with complying with the policy, get in touch with the Open Research Team.
Ensure that you include the rights retention statement in the submitted manuscript of any article you submit.
At acceptance, deposit the author's accepted manuscript in WRAP to ensure it can be made Open Access at the point of publication.
If you plan to comply via the Gold Route, please ensure that the journal is eligible for funding/ is covered by a Read and Publish Agreement. If you are unsure, contact the Open Research Team.
Apply for APC funding from the Wellcome Trust Block Grant, as long as you are publishing in a Gold Open Access Journals (the Block Grant cannot be used to pay for APCs for articles published in Hybrid journals)
The Wellcome Trust have an open access policy that covers monographs and book chapters. In order to comply with the policy, the publication:
must be made available within 6 months of publication, either via Gold or Green Open Access.
should include third-party materials (such as images, photographs, diagrams or maps).
The full Wellcome Trust Open Access policy can be found here. For support with complying with the policy, get in touch with the Open Research Team.
At acceptance, deposit the author's accepted manuscript in WRAP to ensure it can be made Open Access at the point of publication.
At the point of making an agreement with the publisher, you should discuss what Open Access options they offer. If you would find advice around doing this useful, please contact the Open Research Team.
Check out the Open Access Books page to find out more about making your books Open Access.
Use this Open Access books toolkit which explains more about the process of publishing a book Open Access.
Horizon Europe have an open access policy that applies to any peer-reviewed scientific publications arising from projects they have funded. In order to comply with the policy, these articles must:
be made available immediately at the point of publication, either via Gold or Green Open Access. (i.e. have no embargo).
have a CC-BY (Creative Commons Attribution) licence. For longform publications, Non-Commercial (NC) and Non-Derivative (ND) versions of the licences are permitted.
include the following rights retention statement to the submitted version of the article (to ensure compliance with the above to points):
"This work was funded by the Εuropean Union under the Horizon Europe grant [grant number]. As set out in the Grant Agreement, beneficiaries must ensure that at the latest at the time of publication, open access is provided via a trusted repository to the published version or the final peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication under the latest available version of the Creative Commons Attribution International Public Licence (CC BY) or a licence with equivalent rights."
Details of the Horizon Europe Open Access requirements can be found in their Model Grant agreement. For support with complying with the policy, get in touch with the Open Research Team.
National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)
NIHR have an open access policy that covers both journal articles and conference papers. In order to comply with the policy, these articles must:
be made available immediately at the point of publication, either via Gold or Green Open Access. (i.e. have no embargo).
include the following rights retention statement to the submitted version of the article (to ensure compliance with the above to points):
"For the purpose of open access, the author has applied [a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence] [an ‘Open Government Licence’] (or where permitted by the NIHR) [a Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence] to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising."
have a Data Access Statement describing how the underpinning research data can be accessed.
The full NIHR Open Access policy can be found here. For support with complying with the policy, get in touch with the Open Research Team
Ensure that you include the rights retention statement in the submitted manuscript of any article you submit.
At acceptance, deposit the author's accepted manuscript in WRAP to ensure it can be made Open Access at the point of publication.
If you plan to comply via the Gold Route, please ensure that the journal is eligible for funding/ is covered by a Read and Publish Agreement. If you are unsure, contact the Open Research Team.
In exceptional circumstance where a publication cannot meet the open access requirements, exception requests should be made in advanced to research@bhf.org.uk.
The full BHF Open Access policy can be found here. For support with complying with the policy, get in touch with the Open Research Team
Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK have an open access policy that covers research articles. In order to comply with the policy, these articles must:
be made available immediately at the point of publication, either via Gold or Green Open Access. (i.e. have no embargo).
have a Data Availability Statement describing how the underpinning research data can be assessed by researchers and other users. If your research has used patient data, you must use the patient data citation.
post preprints of their work in preprint repositories where possible.
The full Cancer Research UK Open Access policy can be found here. For support with complying with the policy, get in touch with the Open Research Team
Other Funders
The British Academy does not have a specific open access policy, and does not permit their awards to be used to pay for Open Access publishing costs, though it encourages Open Access where possible.
The British Academy maintains its position and responses to open access on their website.
The Leverhulme Trust currently has no Open Access requirements, but they do consider open access costs as permissible costs during the period of a Leverhulme award, which should be included either within the 25% associated costs allowable on Research Project Grants and Research Programme Grants or within the research expenses category for fellowships.
The Royal Society expects its researchers to follow the 'green' route to Open Access as a minimum and has a preference for research to be made Open Access at point of publication, but it does not have any Open Access requirements in place, and they will not cover Open Access publishing costs.
If your funder has not been listed please do get in touch with the Open Research Team and we will be able to advise you as to whether your funder has an Open Access policy, and if so, how you can comply with it.
