Research Publications Policy

Discover how to ensure your research publications comply with the University of Salford’s Research Publications (Open Access) Policy (effective from 1 September 2025). Join one of our workshops to find out more.

An Overview of the Policy

The Research Publications (Open Access) Policy, effective from 1 September 2025, empowers researchers to retain certain rights over their academic publications so that these can be immediately and openly shared, read and re-used. It also ensures that researchers are able to comply with funders’ open access policies and that research outputs will be eligible for submission to the Research Excellence Framework (REF).

The University is committed to academic freedom, and will support researchers to choose the most appropriate outlet for their work, regardless of career level, discipline or funding source.

According to the policy, staff and postgraduate students must submit their journal articles or conference contributions with an ISSN to USIR via Worktribe at the point of acceptance for publication, and no later than three months after that date. The version of the paper that needs to be submitted is the final version submitted by the author(s) before formal acceptance for publication. Provided the publisher has been given prior notice of this Policy by the University, the University will make the AAM publicly available via USIR under a CC BY licence from the date of first online publication.

Researchers are also encouraged to share other forms of research, such as data, theses, videos, and code, on an open access basis. These outputs should be made available in USIR or other appropriate repositories as soon as possible.

Additionally, researchers must adhere to the policies of all funders who have supported their research.

The Policy in Full

1.0 Purpose

At the University of Salford (“University”) we believe that embracing a culture of open research – sharing our research widely and immediately – is essential to our institutional mission of “innovating to enrich lives”. By providing unrestricted and equitable online access to our research outputs we aim to increase their reach and re-use, helping to fully realise the academic, economic, social and cultural impact of our researchers’ work. The Research Publications (Open Access) Policy (“Policy”) empowers researchers to retain certain rights over their academic publications so that these can be immediately and openly shared, read and re-used. It also ensures that researchers are able to comply with funders’ open access policies and that research outputs will be eligible for submission to the Research Excellence Framework (REF).

The University is committed to academic freedom, and will support researchers to choose the most appropriate outlet for their work, regardless of career level, discipline or funding source. 

2.0 Scope

This Policy is relevant to all research outputs produced by Authors (defined in section 3.0 below) in the course of their employment, postgraduate research studies and/or contract with the University as the case may be.

The Policy statements in sections 4.1 and 4.2 apply to all journal articles and/or conference contributions in conference proceedings with an ISSN authored or co-authored by Authors. They apply to all such journal articles and/or conference contributions with an ISSN and this Policy applies from 1 September 2025. 

Section 4.3 sets out expectations which apply to all other research outputs produced by Authors. Detailed requirements on the dissemination of research data are set out in the Research Data Management Policy and are therefore outside the scope of this Policy. Requirements on the deposit of PhD e-theses are set out in the Academic Regulations for Research Awards and the Code of Practice for the Conduct of Postgraduate Research Degree Programmes (see Section 6.0 Related Documentation below).

The requirements of this Policy, in part or whole, may be waived in exceptional circumstances, subject to the approval of the relevant Associate Dean for Research and Innovation (or nominated representative) and where permissible under any applicable external research funder policies. Authors must follow the opt-out procedure set out at section 4.2 below if they require the University to consider a request that an applicable journal article or conference contribution be exempt from this Policy.

3.0 Definitions

Term	Definition
Author	an author or co-author of a research output within the scope of this Policy, including but not limited to: any member of staff; research students; contractors and students carrying out research; any person with a professional or honorary appointment to the University; and visiting or emeritus members of staff of another higher education institution.
Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM)	final peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication, prior to type-setting by the publisher/journal.
CC / Creative Commons licences	Creative Commons licences allow Authors to grant permission for their work to be distributed and/or reused, making clear to users what they are permitted to do with the work. CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International) licence allows users to build upon, adapt or remix the work as long as attribution is given to the creator. This CC licence maximises the potential for others to re-use the work (e.g. through text and data mining).  CC BY-ND (Creative Commons Attribution - No Derivatives 4.0 international) licence allows the work to be copied and distributed in its original form only, without adaptation, and requires attribution to the creator.
ISSN / International Standard Serial Number	an internationally recognised identifier for serial publications (journals, newspapers, magazines etc).

4.0 Policy Statements

4.1 Journal articles and conference contributions with an ISSN

4.1.1 The University confirms that, with limited exceptions as detailed in the University’s Intellectual Property Policy (see Section 6.0 Related Documentation below), it does not assert copyright over academic publications. 

4.1.2 Unless otherwise stated in this Policy, each Author grants the University a non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable, irrevocable, worldwide licence to make all and any of their Author Accepted Manuscript(s) (AAM(s)) publicly available via the University of Salford Institutional Repository (USIR) under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. The CC BY licence will enable sharing and re-use of the AAM which shall at the latest be from the date of first publication.

4.1.3 Authors must deposit into USIR (Worktribe™) full-text copies of their journal articles and/or conference contributions with an ISSN at the point of acceptance for publication, and no later than three months after that date or before the date of first publication, whichever is earlier.

4.1.4 The full-text output deposited must be the Author's accepted and final peer-reviewed manuscript (AAM), although this may be replaced at a later date by the final version of record, i.e. the final published version of a publication, after type-setting and formatting by the publisher.

4.1.5 Where journal articles and/or conference contributions with an ISSN published under a CC BY licence include third-party materials (e.g. images, diagrams) that are subject to a more restrictive licence or on an ‘All Rights Reserved’ basis, Authors are responsible for ensuring that third-party rights are not infringed, and must notify the University if any rights or permissions needed to make third-party content publicly available under a CC BY licence have not been secured.

4.1.6 Provided the publisher has been given prior notice of this Policy by the University, the University will make the AAM publicly available via USIR under a CC BY licence from the date of first online publication. A list of notified publishers is available on the Library website [to follow].

4.1.7 Authors must ensure that their journal articles and/or conference contributions with an ISSN acknowledge the source of funding, any other funding conditions in relation to publication of the same, institutional affiliation(s), and, if applicable, include a statement on how the underlying research materials – such as data, samples or models – can be accessed.

4.1.8 Authors must ensure that their journal articles and/or conference contributions with an ISSN meet any open access requirements placed on their research by funding bodies or under the terms of a research contract. Where required by their funder (including but not limited to UKRI and Wellcome Trust), Authors must insert the following statement (or equivalent as required by the funder) into their submitted manuscript:

“For the purpose of open access, the author(s) has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising.”

4.2 Exceptions

4.2.1 The University recognises that there are certain situations where it may be difficult to follow section 4.1 of this Policy in full. This may be the case, for example, where the Author does not own the copyright in their publication; or there are third-party materials incorporated into the publication and permissions from such third parties cannot be obtained.

4.2.2 In such cases, where permissible under the terms of any external research funder policies, Authors may request an opt-out from all or parts of this Policy, e.g. by applying a more restrictive CC BY ND licence. Where an embargo period is requested, this should not exceed 6 months for AAMs from Health, Science and Engineering, and 12 months for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Opting out could risk an article being ineligible for submission to REF.

4.2.3 Requests must be submitted via the Library website and must provide the reason(s) for the opt-out. Opt-out requests are managed by the Library and are subject to approval on a case-by-case basis at the sole discretion of the Associate Dean Research and Innovation (or nominee). Authors can contact library-research@salford.ac.uk for advice.

4.3 All Other Research Outputs (i.e. those not covered by section 4.1)

4.3.1 In accordance with the University’s commitment to open research and knowledge exchange, Authors should, wherever possible, maximise the visibility, accessibility and use of other research outputs (including, but not limited to, research data, monographs, book chapters, PhD theses, video and audio files, code, tools, and creative works) by making them available on an open access basis, where permitted to do so by (without limitation) ethical, legislative, regulatory, and/or contractual provisions or similar.

4.3.2 All other research outputs should normally be made available in USIR, or for research data and large audio-visual files, the institutional research data repository, as soon as practically possible.

4.3.3 Research data should be made as openly available as possible in an appropriate data repository in accordance with the Research Data Management Policy (see Section 9.0 Related Documentation below).

4.3.4 A final copy of University PhD theses should be deposited in USIR following successful completion of the thesis examination, and will be made openly accessible unless under a moratorium, in accordance with the Academic Regulations for Research Awards and the Code of Practice for Postgraduate Research Degree Programmes (see Section 9.0 Related Documentation below).

4.3.5 When making other research outputs openly available, Authors should ensure that they acknowledge their source(s) of funding and institutional affiliation(s).

4.3.6 Subject to any contractual, confidentiality, data protection or other legal restrictions, any other research outputs should also be made available under an open licence, preferably a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) licence to maximise the re-use potential of research (e.g. through text and data mining).

4.4 Responsibilities

Within the scope of this Policy, the following responsibilities are established.

4.4.1 Authors are responsible for:

ensuring that, wherever possible, their research outputs are made available on an open access basis through USIR or (for research data and large audio-visual files) the institutional data repository, in line with the requirements of this Policy;

meeting the open access requirements placed on their research outputs by funding bodies, regulatory agencies or under the terms of a research contract or otherwise;

depositing in USIR or the institutional data repository research outputs co-authored or co-produced with authors from other institutions;

informing any co-authors of this Policy in order to inform publishing decisions;

taking into account this Policy when deciding which journals and/or conference proceedings they submit their research outputs to;

notifying the Library Research team, as soon as possible, of any exceptional circumstances affecting their ability to deposit research outputs in line with this Policy (see Section 7.0 below for contact details);

ensuring that the terms of any publisher, funder, agreement with a third party, and/or the law regarding copyright, intellectual property, confidentiality, data protection or otherwise, are respected when openly sharing research outputs via any channel;

ensuring that any third-party rights will not be infringed upon the Author’s research outputs being made publicly available under a CC BY licence. Prior to the research output being made publicly available, the Author must either obtain the necessary rights and/or permissions to make the third-party content available or notify the Library that the necessary rights and/or permission(s) have not been secured (see Section 7.0 below for contact details);

working to maximise the visibility, reach and use of their research outputs through effective communications across different channels and networks (e.g. social media, websites, professional networks and communities); and

registering for a single Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) at https://orcid.org/register, connecting it with USIR, and ensuring all their research outputs are recorded against their unique ORCID ID.

4.4.2 The University is responsible for:

maintaining and managing the institutional repositories to support this Policy;

ensuring that the full-text outputs in USIR are compliant with publisher policy where applicable, as well as any applicable copyright permissions, and making them open access in accordance with this Policy;

notifying publishers of this Policy in writing, and keeping a record of notified publishers on the Library website;

raising awareness and providing support, guidance and training to Authors on complying with this Policy and those established by funding bodies and regulatory agencies;