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Policy

The UK Reseach Councils' Policy on Open Access states that publications arising from funded research must either be published Open Access or a copy of the work must be made available in an open access repository, like Apollo, within an acceptable embargo period. Embargo periods of 12-24 months are permissible for Arts, Humanities and Social Science journals and 6-12 months for Science, Technology, Engineering and Medical Journals. The policy applies to peer‐reviewed research articles (including review articles not commissioned by publishers), which acknowledge Research Council funding. Articles published Open Access should be made available using the most liberal and enabling licences, ideally CC-BY.The policy has been in place since 1 April 2013. Research Councils provide block grants to the University to support the payment of article processing charges.

Services at the University of Cambridge

The University administers the Research Councils' block grant centrally. Authors should deposit their accepted articles and the Open Access team will ensure REF 2021 compliance and check funder policies. If the payment of an article processing charge is required, the Open Access team will help the author facilitate this payment. The process by which the Open Access team follows compliance can be viewed in the REF 2021 UK Research Councils and COAF Compliance Decision Tree.