UK Research and Innovation (better known as UKRI) directs the UK government’s research and innovation funding across all disciplines, to the tune of £8b annually, making it a force to be reckoned with in the UK and beyond. UKRI’s open access (OA) policy aligns with cOAlition S, in order to improve consistency and reduce the burden of complying with the somewhat staggering 1,155 current OA policies and mandates worldwide (according to ROARMAP). The current policy applies to UKRI-funded peer-reviewed research articles (including reviews and conference papers), as well as monographs, book chapters, and edited collections. 

There are two routes to compliant open access: through immediate OA of the version of record (journals – within 12 months for books); or, if publishing in a subscription journal, by immediately depositing the Author’s Accepted Manuscript (or Version of Record, where the publisher permits) in an institutional or subject repository on publication.

Many of the technical requirements in the policy can only be achieved or evidenced through metadata such as licensing information, persistent identifiers for items and contributors, links to funding grants, and relationships between versions of articles. However, for a variety of reasons, the current metadata landscape does not support consistent implementation of the technical requirements set out in UKRI’s OA policy, making it difficult for individuals or organizations to fully comply (and show that they have done so). This is especially the case for organizations with fewer resources, such as smaller publishers and less research-intensive institutions.

英国研究与创新署（UK Research and Innovation，简称UKRI）负责统筹英国政府每年约80亿英镑、覆盖所有学科的研究与创新资金，成为英国乃至全球科研领域一股不可忽视的力量。为提升政策一致性、减轻学界需应对全球多达1,155项开放获取政策（据ROARMAP统计）的负担，UKRI的开放获取政策与"S计划"（cOAlition S）保持协调。现行政策适用于UKRI资助的同行评议研究文章（包括综述和会议论文），以及专著、图书章节和编辑文集。

合规的开放获取可通过两种路径实现：一是通过版本记录即时开放获取（期刊论文立即开放，图书在12个月内开放）；二是若在订阅期刊发表，须在出版时立即将作者最终录用稿（或经出版商许可的版本记录）存入机构或学科知识库。

该政策中的多项技术要求（如许可信息、成果与贡献者唯一标识符、资助项目链接、文章版本关联等）必须通过元数据来实现或验证。然而由于多方面原因，当前元数据生态体系尚不能稳定支撑UKRI开放获取政策的技术要求，导致个人或机构难以完全合规（且难以证明其合规性）。这对资源有限的机构尤为严峻，例如小型出版商和科研活跃度较低的机构。