St George's Online Research Archive and REF2029
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions (HEIs). Results from the REF are used by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to inform how they allocate their quality-related research funding to HEIs.
An new open access policy for REF2029 was announced in December 2024. The changes for outputs published between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2028 are outlined in the table below.
Overview of REF2029 OA Policy Requirements
| REF2029 OA Policy Requirement |
Outputs published 1st January 2021 to 31st December 2025 |
Outputs published 1st January 2026 to 31st December 2028 |
Is there a change? |
| In scope outputs |
Journal articles and conference papers published in a proceedings with an ISSN |
Journal articles and conference papers published in a proceedings with an ISSN |
No |
| Publication/Deposit requirements |
Publish gold open access
OR
Deposit in a repository within three months of acceptance
|
Publish gold open access
OR
Deposit in a repository within three months of online publication
|
Yes |
| Repository deposit: version |
Final author accepted manuscript (AAM) |
Final author accepted manuscript (AAM) |
No |
| Repository deposit: embargo periods |
Panel A & B: 12 months
Panel C & D: 24 months
|
Panel A & B: 6 months
Panel C & D: 12 months
|
Yes - shorter embargo length |
| Repository deposit: licences |
No licence requirement
|
No licence requirement, but a Creative Commons licence is strongly encouraged |
No substantive change (note: your funder may require CC-BY) |
| Gold (publisher version) open access: licences |
CC-BY-NC-ND minimum requirement |
CC-BY is preferred, otherwise CC-BY-NC, CC-BY-ND, or CC-BY-NC-ND. |
No substantive change (note: your funder may require CC-BY) |
Why do I need to deposit for REF2029?
When your work is openly available, other professionals, patient groups, charities, members of government and policy makers can easily read and make use of it, whether they can afford subscriptions or not. This improves the potential reach and impact of your work.
What do I need to deposit for REF2029?
The final, peer-reviewed accepted version of any journal article or conference proceeding with an ISSN accepted for publication after 1 January 2021. The publisher version can usually only be made available if it is published under a Creative Commons licence. The image shows what is meant by the final, peer-reviewed accepted version.
When do I deposit?
Within 3 months of acceptance. Deposit your authors’ final peer-reviewed manuscript in CRIS for SORA. Please deposit it as soon as possible, but no later than three months from the date of acceptance for outputs before 1st January 2026, and no later than three months from the date of publication for outputs after 1st January 2026. 
How do I deposit?
St George’s Open Access Publications policy requires that the upload is made via the CRIS for our institutional repository, St George's Online Research Archive, SORA. For further guidance, please login to your CRIS profile and click on the help icon at the top right-hand side.
Further information and support
If you have any questions about open access, please get in touch.
For more information about St George’s REF2021 and REF2014 assessments, please see Research Excellence Framework.
Information on the results of REF 2021 is available at Results and submissions REF2021, along with a searchable database of REF 2021 impact case studies.
Information on the results of REF 2014 is available at Results and submissions REF2014, along with a searchable database of REF 2014 impact case studies.
Contacts
For all enquiries about CRIS and SORA, email the CRIS/SORA team.
For all enquiries about open access, email the open access team.