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.

Being REF compliant: 2021–2025

For relevant research outputs published up to 31 December 2025, the following requirements apply:

An author-accepted manuscript should be deposited in the Oxford Research Archive (ORA) via Symplectic Elements within 3 months of acceptance and made open access within:

  • 12 months of publication (STEM)
  • 24 months of publication (Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities).
 

Deposit your work in ORA 

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.

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).

Published up to and including 31 December 2025.

 Published between 1 January 2026 — 31 December 2028
Deposit within three months of acceptance for publication. Deposit within three months of publication.
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.
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.