Open research

Open research is based on the principle that the processes and outcomes of research should be as transparent, available, and accessible as possible. Open research practices have the potential to make research more efficient and impactful, and to deliver better value for money to those who fund it.

SFC and open research

SFC and the other UK higher education funding bodies jointly run the Research Excellence Framework (REF), a significant driver of sector open research practices. SFC is also a core funder of Jisc, the UK digital, data and technology agency focused on tertiary education, research and innovation. Jisc plays an important role in supporting open access in the UK.

We engage regularly with the Scottish sector on issues related to open research and received valuable feedback from the Open Research Scotland network as the REF 2029 open access policy was developed.

Open access

SFC believes that the outputs of publicly funded research should be freely accessible and widely available. Where possible, we encourage the institutions and strategic initiatives we fund to go beyond the REF 2029 open access policy.

We particularly encourage:

• Research outputs to be discoverable and presented in a form that allows anyone with internet access to search electronically within the text, read it, and download without charge.
• Outputs to be shared as openly as possible, with a strong preference for licensing as CC-BY or other licence formats meeting that standard of openness.
• Outputs to be freely available (as either the version of record or an author’s accepted manuscript) as soon after acceptance as possible.
• Data access statements to be provided, with links to datasets where applicable and appropriate.

SFC is committed to the principle that REF open access policy requirements can be met without researchers or institutions being required to incur additional open access publication costs. We do not mandate specific open access requirements beyond those developed for the REF exercise. This applies both to our core research funding, which is used flexibly by institutions to develop and support excellent research and cannot be directly linked to individual research outputs, and our investment in cross-Scotland strategic initiatives. SFC’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee periodically review our approach to open access and will continue to consider if specific requirements for our strategic research initiatives should be developed.

Researchers and institutions in Scotland should also be aware of UKRI’s open access policy for publications arising from work that UKRI, or any of its constituent councils, have supported.