New UKRI monographs policy is evolution, not revolution, of OA landscape

On 1 January 2024, a new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) policy comes into force. It takes the UK’s research sector further along the path towards a wider and more inclusive open access (OA) research landscape. It affects longer forms of research and aims to set broad guiderails for publishers and authors that will be refined and developed over time.

UKRI has funded Jisc to support the implementation of its policy. Our teams are working with the sector to develop new ways to approach longform research, leading to the wider adoption of open access for monographs and book chapters.

The policy

For several years, policymakers have aimed to bring longer-form research into a more prominent position in the OA landscape. But challenges from business models, funding streams and other issues made integration more difficult than for shorter-form research.

In August 2021, UKRI announced its open access policy that applies to monographs, book chapters and edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024.

After this date, authors of these types of research that acknowledge UKRI funding will need to comply with the new policy by doing three things:

• Make the final version of the research, known as the Version of Record (VoR), and/or the version of the research that has undergone peer review and has been accepted by the publisher (known as the Author Accepted Manuscript or AAM), available as open access within 12 months of publication
• The AAM must be deposited in an institutional or subject repository archive and contain a statement that it is not the final version of the book
• A creative commons (CC) licence must be assigned to the work. CC BY – which allows anyone to copy, distribute, display or make derivative works based on the work, as long as they acknowledge the author – is preferred, but any CC licence will be compliant

To help support the policy, Jisc is liaising with publishers and libraries to ensure publishing costs are reduced and constrained. It’s a priority to transition from old-style paywalls to open research as quickly as possible. Jisc supports UKRI’s aim to foster equitable participation in scholarship and cultural diversity and inclusivity in academic book publishing, also known as ‘bibliodiversity’.

Three things to know about the policy

Researchers and authors affected by the changes may have queries or concerns, but the policy has been written to allow a smooth transition and reduce disruption.

If an author or researcher already has a contract for a book scheduled to be published after 1 January 2024, it will be exempt from the policy.

Many areas of the research process will be unaffected by the policy. The writing process, peer review, a publisher's production and editorial values, and a print copy of the book for sale will stay the same.

Under the new policy, authors do not need to pay for their books to be made open access. An author receiving UKRI funding must contact their publisher and institution. These organisations will follow the process to apply to the central UKRI fund, which will contribute to the costs.

Third-party rights clearance for open access publications is more challenging. Despite the complexities in this area, most publishers offer guidance and there are exemptions to the UKRI policies where rights cannot be obtained for open access. A key point for all authors is that third-party images do not need an open licence.

Most major publishers, including many overseas publishers, already offer open access options. There are also several established open access publishers, such as Open Book Publishers and UCL Press, with years of experience in OA in the UK, US, Europe and beyond.

Find out more

Jisc’s open access team contributes to the Open Access Books Network (OABN) and the OAPEN OA book toolkit, which both provide advice and guidance on OA for books.

All authors and researchers who think they are affected by the new policy should read the updated guidance on the UKRI website. UKRI is running a special webinar for those who support open access at their research organisation to outline the new policy’s requirements on 15 June.

UKRI will be holding a further webinar for researchers about the new open access requirements for monographs, book chapters and edited collections in the autumn of 2023.

To get more information on the webinars and the new OA policy, use the contact email openresearch@ukri.org.