Library Services
For the REF2029 submission period 1 January 2021 – 31 December 2028, two open access policies will apply.
Until 31 December 2025 we need to continue to comply with REF2021 open access rules. The policy states that to be eligible for submission, authors' outputs must have been deposited in an institutional or subject repository within 90 days of acceptance for publication. Deposited material should be discoverable, and free to read and download, for anyone with an internet connection. However, the policy allows repositories to respect embargo periods set by publishers.
For papers published between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2028 we need to comply with the new policy. This is a work in progress but the main guidelines, including how and when the two policies apply, are available here: Section 5 – Open Access policy – REF 2029. A description of the small number of changes is given in the summary of the policy.
Both policies apply to journal articles and conference proceedings with an ISSN. They do not apply to monographs, book chapters, other long-form publications, working papers, creative or practice-based research outputs, or data.
You should deposit the author accepted manuscript of your journal articles and conference proceedings to the Library via researchsupport@cranfield.ac.uk as soon as possible after acceptance.
Don’t panic, there are various exceptions under both policies that can be applied to your work so it may still be eligible for REF. This will be done by the Library’s Research Support Librarians. Contact us if you have any queries: researchsupport@cranfield.ac.uk