On 24 July 2013, the Higher Education Funding Council for England launched a major consultation exercise in relation to the post-2014 REF open access proposals. The full document is available at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2013/name,82784,en.html, and responses are invited by 17.00 on 30 October 2013. Information received during an initial consultation process undertaken earlier this year has informed the proposals, resulting, for example, in the suggestion that a two-year notice period should apply from the announcement of a formal open access policy.
Respondents are asked to address seven main questions, which include the appropriateness of the chosen criteria, the role of institutional repositories, embargo periods and licensing, the research outputs to which the open-access criteria should apply, the above-mentioned notice period, arrangements to ensure that non-UK researchers moving to the UK are not disadvantaged, and the approach to allowing exceptions.