UKRI's Open Access Policy for Long-Form Outputs Explained
UKRI announced earlier this year that it is providing £3.5 million to support open access for long-form outputs (Monographs, Book Chapters or Edited Books). These funds will be used to aid UK authors in making their research widely accessible.
If you’re a UK author who has received funding from UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) to publish a long-form output, you must now follow the new UKRI Open Access policy.[i] But what does this mean?
UKRI open access policy explained
UKRI’s open access policy requires you to make your UKRI-funded Monographs, Book Chapters and Edited Books open access within 12 months of publication. Your research must use a Creative Commons license so that it can be freely accessed, used and built upon.
This can be done by either:
- Publishing your research as open access via a publisher’s website or publishing platform
- Depositing your research in an institutional or subject repository
If your publication contains images, illustrations, tables and other supporting content, they should be included in the open access version, where possible.
The full list of requirements and definitions of in-scope types of publications is available in the UKRI Open Access policy.
How to apply for URKI funding
During Stage 1 of applying for URKI funding, your organization/institution first needs to make an application on your behalf. This is to check that your project is eligible for funding.
The URKI database will then ask you which publisher you’re choosing. MDPI Books can give an initial expression of interest based on you providing us with a simple outline. This is to give you confidence that your book will be a good fit for our programme. Conversely, you can go straight to the full proposal and review process, where we will approve to publish your book subject to you acquiring funding and passing peer review (see our guide for submitting a book proposal).
Stage 2 of the UKRI application process asks for more details about the author and publication details. MDPI Books can support the author with as much technical information as required.
Our compliance with the UKRI open access policy
MDPI Books ensures that authors funded by UKRI will have their research made immediately open access upon publication and hosted in our online library.
We are compliant with all the basic UKRI policies, such as:
- Gold Open Access
- No embargo period
- Fully OA with no restrictions on institutional or regional access
- Any Creative Commons license can be applied according to the author’s preference
- Available electronically immediately and in printed format
MDPI Books will fully acknowledge the funder in the book and the website entry. We will also confirm that the funding has been received so that the institution can send UKRI a ‘final expenditure statement’ as required to close the process.
Normally we ask for funding to be paid after the manuscript has been received and before publication, but we can receive it afterwards to be flexible, so long as we know it is secured.
Are you an author looking to publish a Monograph, Book Chapter or Edited Book with UKRI funding? Send us a proposal today.
[i] https://www.ukri.org/publications/ukri-open-access-policy/