Open Access

Scope

This policy applies to:

• Original, peer reviewed research publications funded in whole or in part by the Medical Research Foundation
• We encourage the sharing of preprints, though this is not mandatory
• Other outputs such as book chapters, monographs, and PhD theses are not covered

Key Requirements

1. Immediate Open Access

• Articles must be freely available at the time of publication
• The most up to date Version of Record or Author Accepted Manuscript must be deposited in Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC) by the final publication date, without an embargo period

2. Licensing

• Publications must be published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) public copyright licence
• This licence allows others to share, adapt, and reuse your work with proper attribution

3. Acknowledgement

• All publications must acknowledge the Medical Research Foundation and include the relevant grant reference number.

4. Data Sharing

• Underlying research data should be made openly available where possible, in line with ethical and legal requirements

Open Access Compliance

Grant holders can comply with the Foundation’s open access policy via two different routes: publish the research article in an open access journal (Gold Open Access route) or publish the research article in a subscription journal (Green Open Access route)

Researchers can publish in the journal or platform they consider most appropriate for their research, provided the Medical Research Foundation’s open access requirements are met. This can include fully open access journals or ‘hybrid’ subscription journals that offer an open access option, and which offer a compliant route.

We monitor compliance through Europe PMC and grant reporting. In our Annual and Final Scientific Reports requests, we ask grant holders to please follow this link to the Europe PMC Grant Finder page to check that their publications are correctly linked to their grant(s). Grant holders can scroll down on the page and select "Medical Research Foundation" in the funder section of the search builder and enter their grant reference (e.g. "MRF-123-1234-TEST") in the "Grant ID" section. If the list of publications generated is incomplete or incorrect, grant holders are asked to submit and/or update their records here. Detailed instructions and guidance can be found on the Europe PMC user guide.

Further Resources

• UKRI – Guidance on Engaging the Public with Your Research
• The Young Foundation- Community Research Networks
• NIHR- INCLUDE Project Guidance
• Open policy finder