The new Research Excellence Framework (REF) Open Access Policy from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) came into force on Friday 1 April. A video has been created with Professor Tim Elliott, Interim Pro-Vice Chancellor Research, outlining this important change for academic staff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SABDOsBnuTE
The policy applies to journal articles and conference papers with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN). To guarantee that your papers will be eligible for the next REF you need to ensure an author accepted manuscript is uploaded to our institutional repository on acceptance of the paper.
HEFCE state that:
鈥淎ny output submitted to the next REF that falls within the scope of this policy but does not meet its requirements or exceptions will be treated as non-compliant. Non-compliant outputs will be given an unclassified score and will not be assessed in the REF鈥�
There is more detailed information and advice available on the and聽if you have any queries you will get help at聽eprints@soton.ac.uk.