RLUK’s Executive Director, David Prosser, recently spoke at a Copyright Clearance Center virtual town hall on UKRI’s new open access policy. A recording of the event can be watched below.
Following extensive consultation with the sector, UKRI (UK Research and Innovation), a non-department public body of the UK government that directs research and innovation funding, published a single Open Access Policy for research publications to increase opportunity for publicly funded research to be accessed, shared and reused. UKRI’s updated policy requires immediate Open Access for peer-reviewed research articles submitted for publication beginning 1 April 2022. It also includes a new requirement for monographs, book chapters and edited collections published from 1 January 2024 to be made Open Access within 12 months of publication.
UKRI’s Head of Open Research Rachel Bruce outlined the policy and what it means, highlighting key changes for publishers and researchers. Rob Johnson, Founder and Managing Director, Research Consulting, led the discussion, with David Prosser and Ros Pyne, Global Director, Research and Open Access, Bloomsbury Publishing.