REF 2029 Open Access Policy
The Research Excellence Framework 2029 Open Access Policy (REF 2029) applies to outputs of UK publicly funded research published from 1 January 2026. In-scope journal articles and conference proceedings articles are required to be published and/or deposited in an open access manner to be eligible for submission to REF 2029.
The simplest way to achieve compliance with REF 2029 is to publish your journal article or conference proceedings article on a Gold Open Access basis. All conference proceedings published by IOP Publishing are published on a Gold OA basis under a CC BY licence. Most IOP Publishing journals are either fully Gold OA or provide the option to publish on a Gold OA basis. Authors subject to REF 2029 should therefore have the option to publish their article in a compliant manner with IOP Publishing.
Publishing on a Gold OA basis is made even simpler by the comprehensive Transformative Agreement we have with JISC Collections. This allows authors affiliated with a large number of UK institutions to publish on a Gold OA basis free of charge. Visit this page to check whether your institution is covered by the JISC Collections TA.
If your article is published on a subscription basis, you will need to comply with the journal’s author rights and article sharing policy, including, where relevant, an embargo period on sharing the Accepted Manuscript. Where the journal requires a 12 month embargo on the sharing of the Accepted Manuscript, you may be able to exempt your article from the REF 2029 open access embargo policy provided the chosen journal is deemed the most appropriate journal for your work. We advise that you consult your institution’s REF support team or office to determine your institution’s policy on seeking exemptions before submitting your article.
If you have any questions about REF 2029 compliance for your IOP Publishing submission, please contact the journal.