HEFCE's Post-2014 Open Access Policy: the short "what you need to know" version

Originally published on eve.gd on 31 March 2014, last updated 6 September 2026.

Read this post on the web (with images, PDF and citation details)

The Really Short Version:

1. Submit journal article.

2. Check journal policy at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/ (the bits on “post-print” are the thing to pay attention to).

3. On acceptance go to your institution's repository and create a record. Upload your author's accepted version setting the embargo as per SHERPA/RoMEO.

4. That's it.

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/

The Geekier Longer Version

Source: "Policy for Open Access in the Post-2014 Research Excellence Framework", March 31, 2014

Policy for Open Access in the Post-2014 Research Excellence Framework

Scope

• Applies to all: journal articles and published conference papers (with ISSN) accepted after 1 April 2016. (Paras 11, 13)
• Exempted: monographs ("and other-long form publications"), edited collections (without ISSN), non-text outputs, data. (Para 14)
• Outputs to which this applies are subject to open access deposit, discovery and access requirements. (Para 16) It is anticipated that the "discovery" requirement will be met at the institutional and technological level.
• "Credit will be given" to institutions exceeding the letter of this policy in a future "research environment" component. (Para 15)
• "Non-compliant outputs will be given an unclassified score and will not be assessed in the REF." (Para 42)

Deposit Requirements

Authors MUST:

• upload the "accepted and final peer-reviewed text" to "an institutional repository, a repository service shared between multiple institutions, or a subject repository such as arXiv". (Paras 17, 19)
• do so "as soon after the point of [firm (Para 19)] acceptance as possible, and no later than three months after this date". (Para 18)

Allowable exceptions:

• the author did not work at an HEI at time of acceptance.
• "it would be unlawful to deposit, or request the deposit of, the output".
• "depositing the output would present a security risk". (Para 36)

Authors MAY:

• upload a subsequent version as a supplement or replacement if the publisher allows it. (Para 19) If a replacement, it must also fulfil the access requirement (Para 33).

Access Requirements

Authors MUST:

• allow others "search electronically within the text, read it and download it without charge". (Para 25)
• respect any 'embargo period' (an open access delay) specified by the publisher. (Para 25)
• but an embargo MUST NOT be longer than 24 months for panels C and D and 12 months for panels A and B. (Para 30)
• regardless of whether publisher specifies delay, you MUST deposit at time of acceptance (deposit requirement)
• no specific license is required. It is suggested that CC BY-NC-ND could meet the above provisions. (Para 25)
• if provisions are made to allow text-mining, which could include more liberal licensing, then credit will be given in the "environment" component. (Para 34)

The ONLY allowable exceptions:

• third-party rights couldn't be obtained for material within to be made OA
• the embargo period was above the maximum allowed, or the journal disallows deposit, but the venue was "the most appropriate" (Para 37)

References

This reference list has been generated, in many cases, through an automated process and may therefore contain errors or incomplete metadata. It is provided purely as assistance for finding the items mentioned within this post.

1. Policy for Open Access in the Post-2014 Research Excellence Framework, HEFCE <https://www.hefce.ac.uk/media/hefce/content/pubs/2014/201407/HEFCE2014_07.pdf>

2. SHERPA/RoMEO journal OA policy database <http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/>

https://www.hefce.ac.uk/media/hefce/content/pubs/2014/201407/HEFCE2014_07.pdf
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/