Cardiff University Open Access Publications Policy

Purpose and Scope

Introduction

Cardiff University recognises the significant social and economic benefits associated with free and open access to publicly funded research outputs.

Open access is a publishing model that enables scholarly publications to be freely available for anyone with access to the internet, rather than limiting readership to subscribers only. Through opening academic research for everyone, open access facilitates equitable access to knowledge and advancements.

UKRI and other funding bodies such as the Wellcome Trust, Horizon Europe and some charity funders are requiring their grant holders to ensure that all outputs from their grants are made Open Access.  There are also open access requirements for the Research Excellence Framework (REF).

Cardiff University’s institutional repository showcases staff and research student publications and makes research outputs available to the public online. Cardiff University requires the deposit of the full text of all Cardiff University research publications into the institutional repository where copyright allows.

Rationale

• To ensure that the requirements of research funders to make research outputs available freely online are met.
• To ensure that all journal articles, conference proceedings and monographs are potentially eligible for submission to the REF.
• To raise the profile of Cardiff University research.
• To improve opportunities for authors to have their work disseminated to a wider audience
• To enable consistent displays of bibliometric measures associated with research outputs such as citation counts and article impact factors.

Scope of the Policy

The Cardiff University Open Access Publications Policy applies to employees of Cardiff University where publication is an expectation of their employment, including postgraduate researchers. Those persons within this scope shall be referred to as ‘Authors’. The policy does not apply to honorary and emeritus staff or undergraduate and postgraduate taught students, but they are encouraged to follow the policy or its principles if appropriate.

Benefits

• The deposit of research outputs in the institutional repository will ensure their long-term preservation, storage, discoverability and availability.
• Publication data and links back to the repository will be available via School and personal webpages.
• Researchers will be supported in the upload of relevant, required information to UKRI’s harmonised Research Outputs System, based on the Researchfish tool (which is a requirement for future funding).
• Outputs deposited in the institutional repository will be ‘exposed’ to Google and other search engines, thus increasing visibility and citation counts.
• Making outputs open access facilitates knowledge transfer and open science. Public service organisations, small and medium-sized enterprises and businesses which do not have access to academic literature will be able to access the University’s outputs freely online, demonstrating Cardiff’s commitment to supporting the economy in Wales and the world.

Definitions

• Output – Any scholarly work created by Cardiff University staff or students.
• Author Accepted Manuscript/AAM/Post-print – The version of a paper after peer-review and corrections but before publisher typesetting and layout. Applicable primarily to journal articles but sometimes also conference papers, book chapters and monographs.

Policy

Cardiff University Open Access Publications Policy

The Cardiff University Open Access Publications Policy requires that:

For all authors:

1. Cardiff University confirms current practice as stated in the Intellectual Property Rights Policy that copyright of any work produced by an employee in the course of employment belongs to the employer but the University normally reassigns ownership of the copyright to the author (or other entity if required) and waives any claim it may have to benefits arising from publication.
2. Authors/Open Access Co-ordinators should record bibliographic details of all research outputs in the University’s institutional repository, no later than the date of publication.
3. Upon acceptance for publication, Authors grant to Cardiff University a non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, sub-licensable license to make the Author Accepted Manuscript of the Author’s work publicly available in the institutional repository upon first online publication under the terms of the most open Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. This process is known as Rights Retention:
   1. Rights Retention applies to journal articles and conference proceedings accepted after 01 October 2025 where the output is published with an associated ISSN.
   2. Authors will include any text required by their funders in the funding acknowledgement section of their manuscript and in any cover letter or note accompanying the submission as appropriate.
   3. Authors with no funder requirements can choose to include the following statement with their submission: “For the purpose of Open Access, the author(s) have applied a Creative Commons license to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission.”
   4. Authors have the right to request their output be exempt from the Rights Retention license or a different Creative Commons license be applied. Requests for exemptions or alternative licenses must be directed the Rights Retention team, contactable at rightsretention@cardiff.ac.uk.
4. The license granted to Cardiff University for the purpose of Rights Retention only applies to first copyright in author outputs. It does not extend to other intellectual property rights in research which will be covered by the Cardiff University Policy for Intellectual Property Rights. The license granted to Cardiff University for the purpose of Rights Retention does not apply to any materials included within author outputs with rights held by a third-party.
5. For journal articles and conference proceedings only, authors deposit the full text of the final, peer-reviewed, Author’s Accepted Manuscript (“post-print") in the institutional repository no later than 3 months after the date of acceptance. Where there are no confidentiality, commercial or other insurmountable constraints, these versions will be made Open Access under the terms of the applied license.
6. Authors are responsible for checking the accuracy of their publications in the Research Portal.
7. Authors/Open Access Co-ordinators are strongly encouraged to deposit the full text of all other publications (including monographs) in the institutional repository where publishers’ copyright permissions allow. This aligns with our commitment to positive research culture, promoting open research practices to ensure that our research is accessible and encouraging engagement with the widest possible audience.
8. Authors must use the standardised institutional affiliation “Cardiff University” in all research outputs to ensure a consistent link to the University. The use of standard author identification methods such as ORCID is required. Help is available from the Open Access team.
9. University regulations already require research theses to be deposited into the institutional repository (unless exempted for copyright reasons). This is part of the award process and, in conjunction with other Examining Board procedures, the final degree will not be awarded until Academic Registry receives confirmation that the thesis has successfully been deposited into the institutional repository.

Grant holders (e.g. UKRI, Wellcome, etc.):

1. Authors must acknowledge the source of grant funding associated with a research output. This is a condition of the majority grant funders and is recommended as best practice even when not expressly stipulated.
2. Where immediate Open Access to research articles is required by a funder’s terms, Authors must comply.  This can be through a Transformative Open Access Agreement or a fully Open Access publication with a commercial publisher, or via an institutional or subject repository or publishing platform.
3. For monographs, book chapters and edited collections, these must be made open access within 12 months of publication for UKRI or within 6 months of publication for Wellcome Trust.
4. Authors must comply with the funders’ policies relating to Open Access, including research information and data management, including research data access statements.

Related Policies and Procedures/Roles and Responsibilities

Advice and guidance

Queries related to this policy can be directed to the Open Access team at openaccess@cardiff.ac.uk. Additional guidance for open research, e.g. depositing to the institutional repository, Open Access funding and open data is available on the intranet.

Further information about positive research culture, which encompasses the behaviours, values, expectations, attitudes and norms of our research communities, can be found on the intranet.

• Further information, including step by step guidance on REF compliance for each School can be found on the staff and student intranet by searching for Open Access.
• Cardiff University Press has been established to provide an additional compliant route to open access for University outputs, including monographs. Submissions to the Press are managed by Editorial Boards under the oversight of a University Press Editorial Board.
• This policy forms part of the University Research Integrity Code of Practice, which can be found on the intranet.

Contact us

For queries on this policy please contact openaccess@cardiff.ac.uk