Research and analysis

Research at Defra: open access policy for publications

Published 12 February 2024

Foreword from the Defra Chief Scientific Adviser

Science is at the heart of what Defra does, shaping our policy making and underpinning our delivery programmes. Defra also provides a critical contribution to the UK Government’s wider science ambition and desire to use science for strategic advantage. We are aided in doing so with a science budget which ranks amongst the top six for UK government departments. 

Defra funds research and development in external organisations, including in partnership with other funders such as UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and in the specialised public sector research establishments within Defra group. 

Defra-funded research results in more than a thousand peer-reviewed journal publications each year, in addition to publications in other routes such as research reports.

We want to maximise the economic, societal and environmental impact and benefits of all research and development (R and D) done by Defra group, or funded by Defra. Key to this aim is increasing access to, sharing, and use of findings derived from our research.  This will enhance the integrity, quality and reputation of our funded research by ensuring transparency. While there are multiple routes for the publication and dissemination of our research outputs, we are committed to ensuring that publication in peer-reviewed publications remains priority for Defra group funded research.

We have developed this open access publication policy, following the lead of UKRI and the mandate in the government’s UK Research and Development Roadmap, which requires that all research outputs funded by the UK government are freely available to the taxpayer.

This policy is the first step in promoting a culture of open access publication that is supported and consistent across the whole Defra group. The policy will ensure that all research outputs undertaken or funded by Defra group are freely and immediately available to access, share and reuse on publication, and that organisations undertaking research funded by Defra group budgets are aware of the open access requirement.

We want the new policy to be easy to implement for all users and not create barriers to publication of our funded research. This includes providing funding to allow Defra funded research to be published open access. We recognise that this is the first iteration of our open access policy, and we will continue to work across Defra group to implement, monitor and develop the Policy to ensure that the outputs of our funded research are freely and openly accessible to all of society.

Professor Gideon Henderson, Chief Scientific Adviser

Introduction

This document sets out the Defra group open access publication policy for research outputs funded by core Defra or Defra group arm’s length bodies, including our Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs).

Open access is a set of principles and practices which make research outputs freely and immediately available online to access, share and reuse. The Defra group open access publication policy (‘open access policy’) aims to maximise the economic, academic and societal impact of Defra group funded research and enhance the integrity and quality of research through greater transparency. Ultimately, this policy aims to enable the results of research that has been publicly funded to be freely accessible in the public domain, implementing the government’s commitment, set out in the UK Research and Development Roadmap, that “…we will require that research outputs funded by the UK government are freely available to the taxpayer who funds research.”

There are a variety of dissemination routes for making research findings accessible, and Defra group support a diversity of approaches to ensure that Defra group funded research is freely accessible for anyone to read and reuse.

This policy is supported by the Defra group open access implementation plan and operates alongside the relevant Defra group publication process applicable to the publication type. Information on these is available by contacting evidence.projects@defra.gov.uk.

Aims

The aim of this policy is to increase access, sharing and use of findings derived from research funded by the Defra group by ensuring that research outputs that are funded by the Defra group are available in open access publications that meet the specified requirements for access and use.

Policy principles

The following general principles underpin the Defra group open access policy:

• Defra group funded research outputs are freely, and permanently accessible online for anyone to read, share and use
• Defra group funded science and analysis should be published in peer-reviewed journals wherever possible
• the policy should not create barriers to maximising the number and quality of journal papers published
• the policy should facilitate the enhancement of science and analysis excellence and reputation across Defra group
• the policy should simplify the process of funding and delivering open access publication for Defra group
• mandating open access publication for Defra group funded research outputs is supported across the Defra group organisations

Policy scope

Defra group

For the purposes of this policy, Defra group is defined as core Defra and all of our arm’s length bodies.

Authorship and Defra group involvement in publication

This policy applies to research outputs funded by core Defra or Defra group budgets unless meeting criteria for exemption (read the Exemptions section).

The policy covers:

• any individual or organisation publishing research outputs wholly funded by the Defra group
• any individual or organisation publishing research outputs partly funded by the Defra group (that is, in collaboration with other donors), including research commissioned by third parties where Defra group research funds are used

Research publications that include a Defra group author using their organisational affiliation, but where there is no associated Defra group research funding, are not in scope of the policy. However, it is considered desirable to make such outputs compliant with this policy where possible, noting that other funders may have open access publication policies that need to be followed for example UKRI open access policy.

Types of publication in scope

This policy applies to peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers and final R and D reports (including R and D reports that have not been peer-reviewed) describing Defra group funded research findings.

The following are considered out of scope of this policy:

• books and book chapters
• data and datasets used in publications
• video
• audio
• images
• websites
• computer software or source code

However, open access publication where possible is encouraged to maximise the impact of publicly funded research, and the types of publication that are in scope of the policy will be regularly reviewed (read the policy review section). Other access policies may apply to these types of outputs, for example, publication of primary data is covered by separate data access policies which may include different Licencing requirements, for example, a CC0 “No Rights Reserved” designation may be suitable for primary data whose value lies substantially in its collation within larger data sets.

Publications arising from data and materials generated during the research funding period, even when the publication is produced outside the period of the grant or contract (for example, a journal article published after the end of the grant or contract, but which uses the data and materials generated during the contracted period) are within scope of this policy.

Publications derived from enhancements or improvements to data or materials derived from Defra group funded research outputs that are made outside of the research contract or grant period and where the enhancement or improvement is not a result of Defra group R and D funding are not considered within the scope of this policy.

Timeframes for publication of research outputs

Research outputs published as Defra group R and D research reports should be published as soon as possible, and ideally no later than 12 weeks following agreement of the final outputs. If a report has been subject to peer review, “final outputs” means the version that incorporates revisions agreed following the peer review process. Certain government evidence products have specified publication timeframes which should be followed where they apply, for example the Government Social Research Publication Protocol.

There is no time limit applied to the generation and submission of journal papers derived from research outputs. However, the author accepted manuscript (AAM) or version of record (VoR) should be made freely available by the official final publication date, with no embargo period (read the compliant open access routes).

The policy

Compliant open access routes

Compliant open access routes are those where the version of record or author accepted manuscript is free and unrestricted to view and download. It should have a licence permitted under Licensing requirements. There should be no embargo period between publication of the version of record and open access to the version of record, or alternatively the author accepted manuscript. Open access pre-publication versions of articles should be made available wherever possible.

Compliant open access routes under this policy are:

• publish the research output (for example final research report) in a publishing platform or repository which allows content to be freely available and unrestricted to view and download, for example Defra’s Science Search.
• if non-Defra group repositories are used they should be registered in the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) and meet the technical requirements set out in Annex 2.
• publish the research article open access in a journal or publishing platform where the version of record or author accepted manuscript is freely available and unrestricted to view and download with no embargo period (also referred to as ‘gold’ open access)
• publish the research article in a subscription journal and deposit the version of record or author accepted manuscript in an institutional or subject repository which is free and unrestricted to view and download at the time of final publication (that is, no embargo period). The deposited version must follow the licensing requirements set out in the licensing section, and the journal submission should include the wording set out in the submissions paragraph. Non-Defra group repositories used should be registered in the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) and meet the technical requirements set out in Annex 2. ‘Green’ open access routes where an article is published in a traditional subscription journal, but where the article is also self-archived in a repository usually require an embargo period before the article can be made open access in a repository, as well as other restrictions, so not all ‘green’ open access routes will be compliant with this policy.

It is recognised that the majority of Defra group repositories do not currently meet the technical requirements of the UKRI open access policy UKRI open access policy. Only the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew repository is registered in the Directory of open access repositories (OpenDOAR), as required by UKRI open access policy. Ensuring that Defra group repositories meet the technical requirements set out in the UKRI open access policy is out of scope of this version of the policy, but will be considered separately.

Licensing requirements

Open Government Licence (OGL) and Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licences both meet Defra group’s open access requirement. OGL is the default licence for civil servants and is the default open access policy licence position for any publication that includes a Civil Service author. A CC BY licence is the default licence that non-Civil Service Defra group authors should use.

The use of the more restrictive Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence can be permitted by exception. This requires approval through the same route used for approving exemptions to open access policy.

If none of the above licences are appropriate, then the publication may be considered as an exception to the open access policy (read the exemptions section).

Submissions to subscription journals must include the following text in the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript and any cover letter or note accompanying the submission: “For the purpose of open access, the author has applied [a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence] [an ‘Open Government Licence’] (or where permitted by the Defra group) [a Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence] to any author accepted manuscript version arising”.

Exemptions

Exceptionally exemptions to the open access policy may be granted to in scope publications for example for commercial, intellectual property (including licensing exemptions – read the Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives paragraph), confidentiality (including policy or political sensitivities), security, legal obligations, ethical considerations, or if the most appropriate journal for the publication does not offer open access.

Exemptions should be agreed on a case-by-case basis. The process for approving exemptions to the open access policy is via the relevant Defra group publication process.

Funding research article costs where required to enable immediate open access

The policy applies to individuals and institutions undertaking research funded wholly by Defra group, including research commissioned through a third party using Defra group funds. It also applies when Defra group funds research in collaboration with other funders.

When an open access payment is applicable (for example an article processing charge), Defra group will pay the fees required by the publisher in line with the criteria in this policy and the principles set out in the paragraph below.

Enquiries regarding details of Defra group funding mechanisms for open access publication should be directed to evidence.projects@defra.gov.uk. However, as a general principle, where Defra group are the contracting organisation for a research project, there should be a requirement within the project contract for any project outputs that are published in academic journals to be open access (according to open access policy requirements) and provision should be made within the contract costs to pay for article processing charges (APCs).

Where it is not possible to fund open access publication through individual project contract budgets, separate open access publication budgets will be available which allow funding to be requested by Defra group authors or those contracted by Defra group.

A significant proportion of the publications in scope of the open access policy will include non-Defra group authors. Therefore, there may be options for external organisations to partially or wholly fund the costs of open access publication, irrespective of whether Defra group is the only funding body for the research. In the first instance, the policy will be to check whether there is an external body that can bear some or all of the cost of open access publication.

The following principles are provided as guidance for allocating open access costs across organisations if:

• Defra group is the sole funder of the research then Defra group will pay for open access publication where required
• Defra group are co-funding the work with an external partner, then the Defra group should contribute an appropriate proportion of the open access funding where required (appropriate in this instance refers to the Defra group funding organisation or organisations making a judgement on what is reasonable given the other funders involved, proportion of contribution of Defra group etc.)
• the Defra group is a co-funder and the major funder(s) will not pay an appropriate open access contribution, then this is grounds for an exemption to the Open Access Policy for Defra group

Policy review

The Defra group is committed to continuous improvement in the field of research openness and transparency and is signed up to the Concordat to Support Research Integrity. As such, the Defra group will monitor the policy from its implementation and will undertake a review of the policy to commence by April 2025.

Compliance and monitoring

Defra group will monitor the implementation of this policy to assess compliance and to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy in achieving the open access policy aims, as well as any unintended consequences of the policy.

To assist monitoring of compliance with this policy, any published articles deriving from Defra group funded work are required to acknowledge Defra group funding.

Contact us

evidence.projects@defra.gov.uk

Annex 1: Glossary of terms

Article Processing Charge (APC)

A publishing fee paid to journals to publish a research output immediately open access.

Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM)

Version of research article that has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by journal, has implemented any revisions required, but has not had the publisher’s layout and typesetting applied.

CC0

Creative Commons “No Rights Reserved” designation that enables creators and owners to give up their copyright and thereby place them as completely as possible in the worldwide public domain, so that others may freely build upon, enhance and reuse the works for any purposes without restriction under copyright or database law.

CC BY

Creative Commons Attribution licence that allows copying and redistribution of the material in any medium or format, for any purpose, including commercially, but requires attribution to the original author.

CC BY-ND

Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives licence that allows copying and redistribution of the material in any medium or format, for any purpose, including commercially, but requires attribution to the original author with the additional restriction that no derivatives (material adapted from the original work) can be distributed.

Gold Open Access

Refers to publications where ‘Article Processing Charges’ (APCs) are paid to the publisher, in return for immediate and unrestricted access to the full text to anyone in the world.

Green Open Access

Refers to publications which are placed in institutional or subject repositories, often after a publisher-imposed embargo period. Publishers often impose copyright and re-use restrictions on such publications.

OA: Open Access

Research publications are permanently available online, free of charge to individuals to access, read and re-use.

OGL

Open Government Licence. The default licence which must be used for most Crown copyright and Crown database right information. Work created by officers or servants of the Crown in the course of their duties is Crown copyright or Crown database right, and cannot usually be assigned away from the Crown. Collaborations between Crown officers or servants and others will also be Crown copyright in respect of the Crown contributions.

OpenDOAR

Quality-assured, global Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) that meet specified technical criteria for inclusion in the directory.

Publishing platform

Online platform for the original publication of research articles. Does not include platforms that only function to aggregate or re-publish content that has already been published elsewhere.

Repository

Online site where electronic copies of academic outputs are held (for example, journal articles, theses or dissertations, reports, working papers, conference proceedings, books or book chapters) or academic resources with sufficient metadata or documentation to make the material re-usable (for example, archival material, datasets, software, images, videos, learning material). A repository is not an electronic journal or a portal for an entity’s portfolio of journals. It also is not an aggregator which solely hosts links to content held on external sites, nor a library catalogue.

Version of Record (VoR)

The final version of a paper that appears in journal or publisher’s website.

Annex 2: Technical standards for repositories

List of technical standards expected for repositories in which in scope articles are deposited.

Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) for research outputs

• Implemented according to international recognised standards, such as DOI, Uniform Resource Name (URN) or Handle.
• Defra group strongly encourages repositories to support common unique PIDs for research management information (for example identifiers for funders and /or organisations).
• ORCID, the researcher identifier, supported to identify all authors and contributors.

Metadata

• Article-level metadata is available, if possible, via a CC0 public domain dedication.
• Article-level metadata includes the persistent identifier to both the Author’s Accepted Manuscript and the Version of Record.
• The metadata standard adheres to international best practice such as the OpenAIRE guidelines.
• Machine-readable information on the open access status and the licence embedded in the metadata in a standard non-proprietary format.

Open Access policies

• The repository is registered in the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR).