Open access policy news
News and updates relating to research funders' open access policies.
UKRI open access block grant update (posted May 2023)
We have now received the 2023/24 open access block grant from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). If you are acknowledging funding from AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC, EPSRC, MRC, NERC, STFC or Innovate UK on journal articles or conference proceedings you may be eligible to apply for funding to cover Article Processing Charges (APCs) from this grant.
APCs can now only be paid from the block grant for articles in fully open access journals or Jisc-approved transformative journals. If you are not eligible for block grant funding (because you are publishing in a non-transformative hybrid journal), please check whether your chosen journal is covered by a transitional agreement. Otherwise, you must ensure you follow these steps in order to be compliant with the UKRI open access policy. Page charges and colour charges can no longer be paid for from the block grant.
Open access charges for monographs and book chapters can not be paid for from the block grant. We hope that in the coming weeks UKRI will release information about the funding arrangements for monographs, book chapters and edited collections, which will come in scope of the open access policy from 1st January 2024. For more information, see our UKRI open access policy guidance or contact oaenquiries@sheffield.ac.uk with any questions.
UEB agrees that Nature Research hybrid APCs will not be paid for by the UKRI and Wellcome open access block grants (posted September 2022)
We are currently in negotiations with SpringerNature as our subscription expires at the end of 2022, and we are part of a consortium seeking a new national deal that constrains costs and provides open access to UK research. As part of these negotiations, UEB has agreed that Nature Research hybrid APCs (which are excessively high, at £8290) will not be paid from any of the central funds managed by the University. This includes the UKRI and Wellcome Trust open access block grants. Authors acknowledging UKRI or Wellcome funding, and submitting to Nature Research journals should comply with their funder’s open access policies by including the relevant licensing statement at submission and making the Author Accepted Manuscript available through White Rose Research Online (UKRI)/Europe PMC (Wellcome) without an embargo and with a CC BY licence. You will need to request a 'UKRI exceptional publishing agreement' from the journal at editorial acceptance to allow you to do this. More information about this is available for Wellcome and UKRI funded authors.
The decision applies to the following titles: Nature, Nature Aging, Nature Astronomy, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Cancer, Nature Cardiovascular Research, Nature Catalysis, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Chemistry, Nature Climate Change, Nature Computational Science, Nature Ecology and Evolution, Nature Electronics, Nature Energy, Nature Food, Nature Genetics, Nature Geoscience, Nature Human Behaviour, Nature Immunology, Nature Machine Intelligence, Nature Materials, Nature Medicine, Nature Metabolism, Nature Methods, Nature Microbiology, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Photonics, Nature Physics, Nature Plants, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Nature Sustainability, Nature Synthesis
If you have any questions, or have already submitted an article to a Nature Research journal without including a licensing statement, please contact oaenquiries@sheffield.ac.uk for advice.
UKRI announces new open access policy (posted November 2021)
UKRI have announced the details of their new open access policy, which will come into effect for journal articles submitted on or after 1 April 2022, and for monographs, book chapters and edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024.
We have produced some guidance for UKRI funded researchers affected by the policy change. If you have any questions, please contact OAEnquiries@sheffield.ac.uk
New Wellcome Trust Open Access policy from 1 January 2021 (posted December 2020)
The Wellcome Trust’s new open access policy applies to all original research articles submitted after 1 January 2021. You can read about the policy on our Wellcome Trust open access policy page.
Articles submitted before 1 January 2021 will still fall under the old policy. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with OAEnquiries@sheffield.ac.uk if you have any questions.