Open Research
What is Open Access and Open Research?
Open Access (OA) means making research findings freely available so that everyone can benefit from reading and using research.
OA is part of a wider Open Research movement, which promotes the free exchange of knowledge and resources, transparency and reproducibility, collaboration with diverse communities, and open sharing of research outputs, data, software and code.
The University’s Open Access Policy outlines University of Huddersfield author responsibilities with regards to open research.
REF: Act on Acceptance!
To comply with the REF 2029 Open Access Policy, researchers must add their journal articles and published conference papers to Pure within three months of acceptance.
For information on how to use this system, visit our guidance on Pure.
Support for Open Access publishing
Gold Open Access
What is Gold Open Access, and how does the University support this through publisher agreements? Click here to find out more.
Green Open Access
What is Green Open Access, and how does the University support this with Pure? Click here to find out more.
Rights Retention
What is rights retention? How can it enable faster OA and ensure I retain more rights to my own research? Click here to find out more.
Gold OA
Gold Open Access means the final version of an article is freely available on the publisher’s website under a Creative Commons licence. Some journals publish only Gold content, while ‘hybrid’ journals include both open and subscription-based articles.
There are usually costs associated with publishing Gold OA. The University provides the following support:
- The UKRI OA block grant is administered by RIKE and can support Gold OA for articles that are produced as a part of an UKRI-funded grant.
- The University subscribes to several open access publishing agreements which allow current University staff and students can publish Gold OA in certain journals without incurring fees.
For advice on publishing Gold OA, please contact rgp@hud.ac.uk before submitting your paper to a journal.
Green OA
Green Open Access involves publishing in a journal as usual, but articles are also 'self-archived' under an open license in a repository (e.g. Pure). There is no cost to the author for this route. If the published article is not Gold OA, researchers can still upload their Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM).
Contact rgp@hud.ac.uk if you need any support with uploading your manuscript to Pure, or visit our Pure guidance page.
What is rights retention?
A process by which authors, rather than transferring their entire copyright holder’s rights over the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) to the publisher, can retain sufficient rights to share the manuscript on their own terms. This can be achieved by the author applying a rights retention statement (RRS), or if the author is subject to an institutional rights retention policy which automatically retains these rights on their behalf.
Under rights retention, authors can make available their AAM under a CC BY licence with no embargo. This means authors can comply with any Green open access requirements for funders and for the REF.
University of Huddersfield rights retention policy
The University of Huddersfield asserts its own rights retention policy for all outputs submitted after 14 October 2025 by staff, meaning that any outputs submitted for publication after this date are automatically covered by this policy and we can apply a CC BY licence with no embargo when outputs are deposited in Pure.
If your manuscript was submitted before 14 October 2025, it may still be subject to an embargo. We encourage you to communicate with the Open Access team (oa@hud.ac.uk) to ensure you remain compliant with requirements and they can answer any questions you may have. You can read the university’s OA and rights retention policy here.
Rights retention statements
Authors can include statements in their manuscripts on submission stating their intent to retain certain rights to the work. An example RRS is as follows: “For the purposes of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Accepted Author Manuscripts version arising from this submission.”
For unfunded authors covered by our institutional policy, including an RRS is best practice but not required for rights retention. However, some funders may require that outputs be submitted with an RRS. You can read more about funder OA requirements further down this page.
Publishers and rights retention
Rights retention generally will not interfere standard publication processes, since rights retention only affects copyright for the Author Accepted Manuscript. The publisher's claim to the Version of Record (i.e. the published version) is not affected whatsoever.
Publishers should not charge for rights retention, although in some cases they may try to direct authors to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) for Gold OA instead. If any issues arise, please get in touch at oa@hud.ac.uk for advice.
Funder Requirements
Many funders, such as UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Wellcome Trust, National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and Horizon Europe, all have their own open access policies. If your research acknowledges funding, there may be specific requirements around open research or open data that you will need to comply with. Contact rgp@hud.ac.uk for further advice.
UK Research & Innovation (UKRI)
Find out about OA requirements for UKRI funded authors.
Wellcome Trust
Find out about OA requirements for Wellcome Trust funded authors.
National Institute for Health and Care Research
Find out about OA requirements for NIHR funded authors.
Leverhulme Trust
Find out about OA requirements for Leverhulme Trust funded authors.
Horizon Europe
Find out about OA requirements for Horizon Europe funded authors.
UKRI Open Access Policy
UKRI-funded authors may be required to:
- make their published outputs open access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. CC BY-ND may be permitted in some cases, but authors must apply for an exception in these cases.
- deposit in Europe PubMed Central (if funded the Medical Research Council (MRC) or the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC))
- include a rights retention statement in submissions if not publishing Gold OA (see section 13 of UKRI policy)
- make their research data as open as possible, and include a data access statement in any publications (see section 15 of UKRI policy)
- acknowledge their funder on any relevant outputs
You can publish in the journal or platform you consider most appropriate for your research, provided UKRI’s Open Access requirements are met.
Peer-reviewed research articles
This part of the policy refers to journal, review, and conference articles accepted in publications with an ISSN. These output types must be made open access immediately upon publication via either the Green or the Gold route, and must be available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.
- Gold: Open Access in a journal or publishing platform. This can be done through a read & publish agreement, or in some cases the APC can be paid directly through the University's UKRI OA Block Grant. If you require use of the block grant, please fill in the short APC Request Form and send it to oa@hud.ac.uk before submitting to a journal.
- Green: Sharing your Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in Pure will meet UKRI's OA requirements, provided that no embargo is applied and the manuscript is shared under a CC BY licence.
Authors are strongly advised to contact oa@hud.ac.uk before submission to ensure that an eligible route to OA is available.
Monographs, book chapters and edited collections
Long-form outputs acknowledging UKRI funding must be made open access within 12 months of publication (exceptions may apply). This can be achieved via either the Gold or Green routes to open access. A Creative Commons licence must be applied; CC BY is preferred but not mandatory for these output types.
Funding is available to support the payment of Book Processing Charges (BPCs) or Chapter Processing Charges (CPCs) where necessary. Please contact oa@hud.ac.uk for support with making an application to use these charges.
Wellcome Trust OA Policy
Wellcome Trust funded authors may be required to:
- make their published outputs open access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. Other CC licences may be permitted but only in specific cases; see below for more information.
- deposit in Europe PubMed Central for all outputs, and National Center for Biotechnology (NCBI) Bookshelf if your output is a scholarly monograph or book chapter
- include a rights retention statement in submissions if not publishing Gold OA (see 'rights retention' section of Wellcome policy)
- make their research data as open as possible, and include a data availability statement in any publications (see Wellcome guidance on data availability statements)
- acknowledge their funder on any relevant outputs
You can publish in the journal or platform you consider most appropriate for your research, provided the Wellcome Trust's OA requirements are met.
Peer-reviewed research articles
This part of the policy refers to journal, review, and conference articles accepted in publications with an ISSN. These output types must be made open access immediately upon publication via either the Green or the Gold route, and must be available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. CC BY-ND may also be permitted in some cases, but authors must apply for an exception.
- Gold: Open Access in a journal or publishing platform. This can be done through a read & publish agreement, or the Wellcome can fund the cost of article processing charges for research articles published in fully open access journals.
- Green: Sharing your Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in Pure will meet Wellcome's OA requirements, provided that no embargo is applied, and the manuscript is shared under a CC BY licence.
Authors are strongly advised to contact oa@hud.ac.uk before submission to ensure that an eligible route to OA is available.
Monographs and book chapters
Long-form outputs acknowledging UKRI funding must be made open access within 6 months of publication. This can be achieved via either the Gold or Green routes to open access. A Creative Commons licence must be applied; CC BY is strongly preferred, but CC-BY-ND or CC-BY-NC are also permissible for these output types.
Funding is available to support the payment of Book Processing Charges (BPCs) or Chapter Processing Charges (CPCs) where necessary. Please contact oa@hud.ac.uk for support with making an application to use these charges.
NIHR Open Access Policy
NIHR-funded authors are required to:
- make their published outputs open access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. CC BY-ND may be permitted in some cases, but authors must apply for an exception in these cases.
- deposit in PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC
- include a rights retention statement in submissions if not publishing Gold OA (see Principle 2 of NIHR policy)
- include a data access statement on published outputs (see Principle 3 of NIHR policy)
- acknowledge NIHR funding on all relevant outputs
You can publish in the journal or platform you consider most appropriate for your research, provided the NIHR OA requirements are met.
Peer-reviewed research articles
The policy applies to journal, review, and conference articles accepted in publications with an ISSN. These outputs must be made immediately open access upon publication under a CC BY licence.
- Gold: Publish open access in a compliant journal or platform. This can be achieved through a read & publish agreement, or NIHR will fund reasonable Article Processing Charges (APCs) for publishing in fully open access journals. For payment of APCs. NIHR will make funds available through the NIHR Open Access funding envelope. Note that the Green route below must also be followed even if publishing Gold.
- Green: The most up to date Version of Record or the Author Accepted Manuscript of in-scope articles must be made freely available through PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC by the official final publication date, without any embargo period. Authors should also deposit their manuscript in Pure as per University and REF policies.
Authors are strongly advised to contact oa@hud.ac.uk before submission to ensure that an eligible route to open access is available.
Monographs and book chapters
Monographs (with the exception of NIHR Journals Library publications), book chapters, edited collections, or forms of non-peer-reviewed material, such as pre-prints, are considered out of scope of this policy.
Leverhulme Trust OA Policy
The Leverhulme Trust does not currently mandate archiving or open access publication for outputs which it has funded. However, authors are required to acknowledge their funder on any relevant outputs.
Although not mandated, Leverhulme encourages open access publication; authors may include open access charges as a permissible expense. These charges should only be incurred during the period of a Leverhulme award, and will otherwise be returned to the Trust.
University of Huddersfield authors should still follow our institutional Open Access policy, which requires the deposit of the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in Pure. This is fully permitted by the Leverhulme Trust.
Horizon Europe Open Access Policy
Horizon funded authors may be required to:
- make all peer-reviewed scientific publications open access
- share their outputs in a trusted repository (such as Pure)
- make their research data as open as possible, and apply FAIR principles when data sharing
- acknowledge their funder on any relevant outputs
You can publish in the journal or platform you consider most appropriate for your research, provided Horizon's OA requirements are met.
Useful link: Horizon Europe: Open science and the proposal application
Peer-reviewed research articles
These outputs must be made immediately open access upon publication under a CC BY licence.
- Gold: Publish open access in a compliant journal or platform. This can be achieved through a read & publish agreement, or, the APC may be charged to the project during its duration provided that these costs are included in your project proposal. In the latter case, only outputs published in a fully OA journal are eligible. Even when publishing Gold OA, outputs must be deposited in a trusted repository to ensure compliance.
- Green: Sharing your Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in Pure by the time of publication will meet Horizon's OA requirements, provided that no embargo is applied and the manuscript is available under a CC BY licence.
Authors are strongly advised to contact oa@hud.ac.uk before submission to ensure that an eligible route to open access is available.
Long-form publications
Long-form publications such as monographs must be made open access at the time of publication. However, the licencing requirements are less strict – a Creative Commons licence must still be applied, but CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND or CC BY-NC-ND are all permissible in addition to CC BY.
Publication fees for open access books may be eligible for charging to the project (similar to an APC), provided that these cover the first digital open access edition of the book.
Book chapters are not considered long-form outputs by Horizon and are instead treated similarly to articles.
Researchers funded by Horizon Europe can publish for free on the Open Research Europe platform, which is a peer-reviewed OA publishing platform created by the European Commission exclusively for research funded under both the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programs. The platform makes it easy for European Commission beneficiaries to comply with the open access terms of their funding.