If your work is funded by a grant, the money often comes with strings — and increasingly, one of those strings is how you publish. Research funders, from national agencies to charitable foundations, want the results of the work they paid for to be freely available. Their open-access mandates can shape your publishing choices, and missing a requirement can jeopardise reporting or future funding. It pays to know the terms before you submit, not after.
Why funders mandate open access
The logic is straightforward: public or charitable money paid for the research, so the public should be able to read the results without a paywall. Open access also speeds up how quickly findings can be built on, which is what funders are buying.
What mandates typically require
Requirements vary, but common elements include:
- Open access to the published article, sometimes immediately on publication with no embargo.
- A specific licence — often CC BY — so the work can be reused, not just read.
- Deposit of the article or accepted manuscript in a named repository (for example, a subject or institutional repository).
- Data sharing alongside the paper, following the FAIR principles.
Some influential funder coalitions require immediate, CC BY open access with no embargo at all — a strict standard you need to plan for from the start.
Routes to comply
| Route | How you comply | Cost to you |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | Publish in an open-access journal; the final version is free immediately. | Possibly an APC (often funder-covered) |
| Green | Deposit the accepted manuscript in a repository. | Free |
| Rights retention | Keep the right to deposit your accepted manuscript openly, with no embargo, even in a subscription journal. | Free |
See our fuller explanation of the gold, green and diamond routes if these are new to you.
How to check your policy
Read your grant conditions, check your funder's open-access policy page, and use your institution's library or research office — they track funder requirements and any publisher deals that cover APCs. Directive Publications publishes under CC BY with immediate open access and Crossref registration, which satisfies the core of most mandates, and offers waivers where funding does not stretch to a fee. Confirm the details for your specific funder before you submit.