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Research Councils UK (RCUK) Funder Policy: RCUK

RCUK Policy

Under the current RCUK policy published research must be made Open Access (OA).

The RCUK OA fund provides funding assistance for Gold OA Article Processing Charges (APCs) where the research being published is RCUK funded.

RCUK funders include:

RCUK requirements apply to all peer-reviewed research articles and conference proceedings accepted for publication from 1 April 2013

RCUK Funding should be acknowledged in the research output, referencing the full RCUK grant code, for example, “This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number 1234]”

Gold Publication Criteria

  • The RCUK preference is for immediate and unrestricted access to research outputs through Gold OA.
  • Peer-reviewed research articles and conference proceedings accepted for publication from 1 April 2013.
  • RCUK funding is acknowledged in the paper and that the full RCUK grant code is referenced.

The recommended format is: “This work was supported by the X Research Council [grant number xxxx].”

Where applicable, a statement on how the underlying research materials – such as data samples or models – can be accessed is included.  For more information, contact the Research Support Team.
The recommended format is: “The research data associated with this paper which was funded by EPSRC is available at: [URL or DOI].

Gold Journal Criteria

  • Journal complies with RCUK Policy on Open Access.
  • CC BY licence is available.

Green Publication Criteria

If it is not possible to comply with the Gold route, RCUK require deposit of the Accepted Author Manuscript (AAM) in a repository (for the University of Northampton this is achieved by depositing in NECTAR).

Note: Where deposits are subject to a publisher embargo before they can become open access, RCUK require that this does not exceed:

  • 6 months for Medical Sciences and STEM disciplines; and
  • 12 months for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Where applicable, a statement on how the underlying research materials – such as data samples or models – can be accessed should be included.

For more information, contact the Research Support Team.

The version of the article is the Accepted Author Manuscript (AAM), with the peer-review comments implemented as it was accepted for publication. Depending on the publisher, these articles may be subject to an embargo period, after which the article can be made freely available.

Green Journal Criteria

Journal complies with Green RCUK Policy on Open Access.