HEFCE have recently made a further amendment to their open access policy for the next REF, extending the leniency for the first year until 1 April 2018, with a further review expected in autumn 2017.
The leniency refers only to the specific policy requirement on how soon authors must upload their files into RIS:
The policy continues to require that, in order to be eligible for submission to the REF, outputs must be deposited within three months of acceptance for publication, but we now plan that this requirement will apply to outputs accepted after Sunday 1 April 2018.
Outputs accepted between 1 April 2016 and 1 April 2018 must be deposited within three months of publication.
Given that HEFCE are still strongly advocating the message to deposit at acceptance and this is also the requirement of the university’s own open access policy, the key message to Swansea University researchers remains:
“Upload the accepted manuscript to RIS at acceptance!”
Link to the updated REF OA policy
Further information on open access for Swansea University researchers
Contact iss-research@swansea.ac.uk for help and guidance