A new REF 2029 Open Access Policy has been published. It comes into force from January 2026 when it will apply to articles and conference proceedings published between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2028.
Articles and conference proceedings published between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2025, are subject to the current REF 2021 Open Access Policy
Research England consulted on potential changes. See our response to the consultation
- the new policy does not include monographs or book chapters.
- immediate OA publication of an article on a journal site (eg under one of Kent’s Read and Publish agreements) still meets the requirements.
What’s different in the REF 2029 OA Policy?
- Outputs are required to be deposited on publication (no later than 3 months after) rather than on acceptance for publication
Allowable embargo periods for compliance via deposit of Author Accepted Manuscripts have been reduced to
- 6 months for panels A and B
- 12 months for panels C and D
- A similar range of permitted exceptions still apply but there have been some minor changes
To be eligible for the REF
Publish OA on the journal site using a CC BY, CC BY NC, CC BY ND or CC BY NC ND licence and deposit in KAR
OR
deposit your Author Accepted Manuscript in the Kent Academic Repository (KAR) upon acceptance
What we recommend you do
- Check which journals are covered by our Read and Publish agreements. Articles in these journals will be OA upon publication on the journal site. They automatically meet OA REF requirements.
- Fill in the form on the REF Assisted Deposit page to send us your article to add to KAR for you. Continue to do this upon acceptance.
- Ensure all your publications are added to KAR. To check which of your publications are in KAR use the Browse function in KAR and select Browse by Person, or use the Advanced Search. Be aware that the Manage Deposits area of KAR does not represent your full publication list .
What else are we doing to help?
Have a look at our answers to FAQs
See our Open Access and the REF webpage
As academic staff, you continue to be responsible for ensuring your publications are listed in KAR. To support this process, however, we use automated services which send us details about some Kent articles and conference proceedings directly into KAR. We check and edit this information, make it live in KAR and let you know we have added the article on your behalf
Help is available and we continue to provide a support and enquiry service for any queries. Contact researchsupport@kent.ac.uk
Policy update and Author Rights Retention
To address external scholarly developments and the changing policy environment, the IS Open Research team reviewed the existing University Open Access policy.
A draft of the University’s new Research Publications policy has been discussed with the University’s Research Culture and Environment Steering Group. The policy can be viewed here and we would welcome your comments. Please send to researchsupport@kent.ac.uk
The draft Research Publications Policy incorporates an Author Rights Retention approach which many UK universities have already adopted. More information will follow.