The Research Excellence Framework (REF)
This page contains information on the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and how to make your research outputs compliant with the open access policy.
New to open access? Start here!
The REF is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions and allocating funding for this research to institutions.
Learn more about the REF (Research Support pages)
On this page
Key information
Each research output submitted to REF must satisfy open access requirements to be eligible.
New OA requirements for REF2029 will come into effect for journal articles and conference proceedings published from 1st Jan 2026.
Learn how the REF criteria are changing
Current actions
For the current period (2025) the following requirements for applicable outputs continue to apply:
An author-accepted manuscript should be deposited to ORA via Symplectic Elements
- Within 3 months of acceptance
- Made open access within 12 months of publication (STEM) or 24 months of publication (HUMSS)
Keeping up to date
Throughout 2025 we will be updating this webpage with new information on the REF29 OA requirements.
Read the current REF news item
To stay notified of updates, researchers, administrators and support staff at Oxford can:
1) Attend a policy briefing session (online, termly)
Book onto the next REF OA policy briefing
Watch the most recent REF policy briefing recording
To be notified of forthcoming briefings please email usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
2) Sign up to a mailing list (1-4 notices a month about open scholarship, including REF notices)
Sign up to a mailing list via the form
3) Join the Open Access Community Updates team on Microsoft Teams (real time notices of particular use to staff with a communications role)
How the REF OA criteria are changing
While all outputs’ metadata should be registered in Symplectic Elements to be considered for the REF, journal articles and conference papers must also fulfil open access requirements to be considered.
| 2021 policy | 2029 policy |
|---|---|
| Final peer-reviewed version of journal articles and conference papers (in publications with an ISSN). | Final peer-reviewed version of journal articles and conference papers (in publications with an ISSN). |
|
Accepted on or after 01/04/2016. |
Published between 01/01/2026-31/12/28 |
| Deposit within three months of acceptance for publication. | Deposit within three months of publication. |
| Immediate OA (‘gold’ or ‘diamond’) via the publisher AND/OR Deposit (‘green’) OA via a repository. |
Immediate OA (‘gold’ or ‘diamond’) via the publisher AND/OR Deposit (‘green’) OA via a repository. |
| Embargo allowance: 12 months (Main Panels A&B) 24 months (Main Panels C&D). |
Embargo allowance: 6 months (Main Panels A&B) 12 months (Main Panels C&D). |
| No licence specified or required but 'suggested' CC licences. | Must be made open access under a Creative Commons (or similar) licence, with a preference for CC BY. |
Learn more about licences for open scholarship such as creative commons
Useful links
Guidance on depositing
Research services REF guidance
REF policy page
Further information and FAQ
Although you may submit your accepted manuscript to ORA to fulfil open access requirements for the REF, the published version of record will be the version used by REF during the assessment.
You do not have to pay an APC for your work to fulfil the open access REF requirements.
Depositing the accepted version in an open access repository ensures it is eligible; the REF policy does not ask for the final published version.
You can choose to publish in a 'gold' open access journal (which may require a fee for publication) if that is the most appropriate publication for you, but it is not a requirement for REF.
UKRI compliant? You're good to go.
The following is in UKRI's official FAQ (checked 06/03/25):
The four UK higher education funding bodies (Research England, Scottish Funding Council, Medr: the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research and Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland) consider a UKRI open access compliant publication to meet the REF policy without additional action from the author or institution.
If you are compliant with the UKRI funder's policy, you will be able to submit your outputs to the REF with no further action.
Other Plan S funded authors?
There is much similarity between UKRI policies and those of other Plan S signatories, such as Wellcome. It is likely that if you are compliant with these funders you will need to take no further action to ensure REF compliance, but it is crucial that you assess the funder policy vs REF requirements to ensure this.
The following summary may be of use when contacting co-authors outside the UK who are unfamiliar with the REF to request a copy of the author accepted manuscript:
“The UK government has an open access policy which requires university researchers to deposit their journal articles into their institutional repository. The version required is the final peer-reviewed manuscript (also known as the author accepted manuscript). In the case of co-authored articles, UK authors are encouraged to request a copy from the lead author.
An accepted manuscript is the final peer-reviewed version, before the publisher’s copy-editing, proof corrections, layout and typesetting.
The policy aims to increase the amount of research publications which are available open access and is part of the UK’s Research Excellence Framework, a national assessment of the quality and impact of university research whose results are used to allocate research funding.”
Monographs are not an output with open access requirements for either the current nor the 2029 REF.
When the initial REF29 requirements were released for consultation, the policy did include monographs, but this inclusion was removed.
Read the official notice about the removal of monographs here
Research England have stated:
An open access requirement for submission of longform outputs will be in place for the next assessment exercise, with implementation from 1 January 2029.
