Go back

cOAlition S welcomes the Plan S-aligned Open Access policy from UKRI

06/08/2021

cOAlition S – an international consortium of research funding and performing organisations committed to implementing Plan S – warmly welcomes the publication of the updated UKRI Open Access (OA) policy and its explicit commitment to full and immediate Open Access.

Key aspects of the updated UKRI policy includes:

  • Zero embargoes. All UKRI funded research articles must be made OA at the time of publication;
  • Open licences. All UKRI funded research must be licensed CC BY (with some minor exceptions);
  • No funding of APCs in hybrid journals, outside of transformative arrangements;
  • Multiple routes to support compliance, including depositing the Author’s Accepted Manuscript (or Version of Record, where the publisher permits) in an institutional or subject repository at the time of final publication.

Marc Schiltz, Chair of the cOAlition S Leaders’ Group and President of Science Europe, commented: “We are delighted that UKRI have developed such a strong Open Access policy aligned with Plan S principles, recognising that publishing in this form maximises the impact of research.  After the European Commission, another heavy-weight funder with multi-billion dollar annual investments in research and innovation is now adopting a strong OA policy. No doubt the UKRI Open Access policy will be a model and inspiration for other funders worldwide”.

Johan Rooryck, Executive Director of cOAlition S, added: “UKRI have been a supporter of Plan S since its inception, and we are happy to see that the UKRI policy aligns with that of the other cOAlition S members.  With the publication of this updated policy, we look forward to an ongoing and fruitful relationship with UKRI”.

The related announcement and updated UKRI policy can be accessed at https://www.ukri.org/news/ukri-announces-new-open-access-policy