DPhil and postgraduate open access portal

What is covered

If you are a DPhil student who is funded by UKRI for the entirety of your DPhil, then the UKRI open access policy applies to:

• your thesis 
• publications based on your DPhil funded research during your DPhil
• publications based on your DPhil funded research after you have finished your DPhil (see below on re-use of data).

Note: After 1st January 2024, this will include monographs and book chapters.

If you are funded for a specific piece of work during your DPhil, then the UKRI open access policy applies to that specific piece of work.

Learn about UKRI’s open access policy

Official wording

The UKRI Terms and conditions for training funding state in section 11 Exploitation and Impact that:

11.4 Students supported by the Training Grant shall, subject to the procedures laid down by the Research Organisation, publish the results of their research, excluding theses (see TGC 11.5), funded by the Training Grant, in accordance with normal academic practice and Our policy on open access.

Publications and other forms of media communication, including media appearances, press releases and conferences, must acknowledge the support received from Us, quoting the Training Grant reference number if appropriate. Please see details on how to acknowledge funding from UKRI.

Go to our templates page to find official acknowledgement wording

Grants awarded before the policy start date, and closed grants

The policy applies to a publication arising from pre-existing and closed awards if it is an in-scope research article submitted for publication on or after 1 April 2022, or an in-scope monograph, book chapter or edited collection published on or after 1 January 2024.

What to do

Thesis deposit and embargoes

You will need to deposit a copy of your thesis into the Oxford University Research Archive.

UKRI have several requirements for this that are outlined on the thesis LibGuide. 

Go to the University of Oxford thesis LibGuide

Training for Oxford DPhils depositing their thesis

Journal articles and conference papers

If you:

1. have published a journal article or conference paper
2. and this is during your DPhil (or after – see below about the re-use of data)
3. and it acknowledges the funding from your DPhil

then the UKRI open access policy applies to this work and you may apply for funds from our Oxford-held block grant to assist with compliance. (Please note the criteria for payment and funder requirements.)

Apply to the Oxford University UKRI APC block grant

Book chapters

If you:

1. have published a book chapter
2. and publication is after 1st January 2024
3. and it acknowledges the funding from your DPhil

then the post-1st January 2024 policy on book chapters will apply.

Monographs based on your thesis

There are special exemptions to the 1st January 2024 open access monograph policy for "UKRI issued training grant" students who are publishing a monograph based on their thesis.

You do not need to follow the open access monograph section of the policy. However, you are allowed to apply for open access funding from the monograph fund hosted by UKRI either through your new institution or as a solo researcher. This would allow you to benefit from an open access monograph.

Publishing works unrelated to your UKRI DPhil funding

If, for example, you publish an article that is a re-written version of your masters dissertation and UKRI did not fund this masters, then UKRI will not be acknowledged on that paper and therefore you do not need to follow the policy.

You can, of course deposit the article into ORA for ‘green’ open access or make use of publisher deals to publish ‘gold’ open access if you wish.

If you feel you need to acknowledge your research funding, then the policy will need to be followed for applicable outputs.

Publishing outputs based on UKRI-funded DPhil data

If an output is a result or adaptation of research that you undertook while having UKRI funding, then that output needs to comply with UKRI open access policy.

Any subsequent work created by building on data collected during a DPhil is considered a secondary project and would not need to comply.

For example, if a UKRI-funded DPhil

1. writes a thesis based on research they carried out while they were UKRI funded
2. makes their thesis open access in accordance with the rules of their training grant
3. goes on to do additional post-doc research funded from another source, though building on the data collected during their DPhil

then they wouldn’t be subject to the UKRI policy, because the second research project, even though it draws on existing data, is a separate exercise.

However, if they

1. adapt the thesis into a journal article using content which is broadly the same as the thesis
2. acknowledge funding received during their doctorate
3. are using data collected during the DPhil which has not yet been used for their thesis or any published work

then they ought to comply and acknowledge UKRI.

Funding for publication

If you are publishing articles and conference papers that are in scope of the UKRI open access policy (see above) you may apply for funds from the block grant.

Note payment exemptions and fund status.

If you are publishing in a journal covered by an Oxford-signed publisher deal during the duration of your DPhil, you should submit using your @ox.ac.uk email address and make use of the deal.

Note: many deals will not be available to you after you have left the University.

If you are publishing a monograph based on your thesis you may apply for open access publication funding from the UKRI managed monograph fund.

Note: there is no guarantee of funding as this output is ‘out of scope’ for the policy.

DPhil students may publish outputs that are later submitted to the REF, but those produced while they were a student are exempt because they were not employed by a UK higher education institution at the time of submission for publication.

DPhils who are not in receipt of funds for open access payments can achieve open access through other routes.

Learn more about unfunded routes to open access