REF and Oxford
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a national assessment of research quality. It informs how public funding for research is allocated in the UK.
To be included in the REF assessment, journal articles and conference proceedings with an ISSN must meet the REF open access policy.
The University of Oxford submits to the REF every 6–7 years. The next submission will be in 2028.
On 1 January 2026, new open access requirements for journal articles and conference proceedings will come into effect (see table below for details).
How to be REF ready
The simplest way to be REF compliant is to make sure your articles are open access.
Check open access really means open
If your article is made open access by the publisher, check this really means open:
- Is it published open access immediately after publication without a waiting period?
- Does it have an open licence (e.g., CC BY or similar)?
If it meets these criteria, your article is REF compliant.
Deposit in ORA if your article isn’t made open access
If your article is not made open access immediately by the publisher, then deposit it in ORA (Oxford University Research Archive).
You should deposit your ‘author accepted manuscript’ – the final text of your article after peer review that the journal has accepted, but without the publisher’s formatting.
For articles published:
- Before 31 December 2025: you must deposit within 3 months of acceptance
- After 1 January 2026: you must deposit within 3 months of publication (we recommend depositing as soon as possible after acceptance)
In line with the University’s Open Access Publications Policy, your article will then be made available open access on ORA (Oxford University Research Archive) on the journal publication date, unless you choose to opt-out.
Your rights to deposit in ORA
To support our researchers, the University’s Open Access Publications Policy includes a ‘rights retention’ clause. This gives authors the right to make the author-accepted manuscript version of a journal article available open access at the time of publication (e.g. by depositing it in the Oxford University Research Archive), even if your publisher applies an embargo.
If in doubt, deposit your author-accepted manuscript in ORA, and our team will make sure it complies with your journal and the REF open access requirements.
Find out more about rights retention (SSO required)
Reduce the REF paperwork
You can reduce your REF paperwork and administration by linking your ORCID profile to the University and enabling auto-claiming in Symplectic Elements. This one-off action only takes a few minutes.
How the REF open access requirements are changing
The table below outlines key aspects of REF open access policy, with notable changes highlighted in bold.
| For research published up to and including 31 December 2025 | For research published between 1 January 2026 — 31 December 2028 |
|---|---|
| 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). |
| Immediate open access (‘gold’ or ‘diamond’) via the publisher and/or Deposit (‘green’) open access via a repository. |
Immediate open access (‘gold’ or ‘diamond’) via the publisher and/or Deposit (‘green’) open access via a repository. |
| Deposit within three months of acceptance for publication. | Deposit within three months of publication. |
| 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*. |
*REF licensing requirements apply only to outputs made immediate open access by the publisher, (i.e. ‘gold’ or ‘diamond’), but the University Open Access policy advises using the same licences for deposit via a repository (i.e. ‘green’)
Keeping up to date with the changes
Further information
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.
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 your output is compliant with the UKRI funder's policy, it will meet REF requirements with no further action.
Other funders
There is much similarity between UKRI policies and those of others, 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.
Monographs are not subject open access requirements for the REF 2029.
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.
Contact us
If you have any queries about the REF open access requirements, contact the Open Scholarship team via our form.
