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Deposit in Spiral for REF eligibility

Depositing your work in Spiral, ³Ô¹ÏÍø’s open access research repository, allows you to make journal articles and other research outputs openly available, meet funder requirements, and ensure eligibility for the next Research Excellence Framework (REF). 

Outputs published from 1 January 2021 will be eligible for submission to the next REF. 

For further guidance, see:

Depositing your work in Spiral – Top 5 frequently asked questions

What is Spiral? 

is ³Ô¹ÏÍø’s open access research repository.

It provides a platform for sharing and preserving the College’s research outputs, making them freely accessible to a global audience. 

The repository contains over 120,000 items and supports ³Ô¹ÏÍø’s commitment to open research by increasing the visibility, accessibility, and impact of its scholarly work. 

What can be deposited? 

Spiral accepts a wide range of research outputs, including:  (Please allow a few moments for the linked pages to load after clicking a link)

Spiral is particularly useful for: 

• Making journal articles open access in line with funder and REF requirements 

• Sharing outputs that are not formally published 

• Disseminating research quickly, ahead of or alongside peer-reviewed publication 

Spiral does not perform peer review, but hosts content that may have been peer reviewed elsewhere.

Why use Spiral? 

Depositing your work in Spiral offers several benefits: 

• Open access compliance 
  Helps meet funder and REF open access requirements 

• Increased visibility 
  Research is easily discoverable and shareable 

• Long-term preservation 
  Outputs are securely stored and maintained by ³Ô¹ÏÍø 

• Persistent links 
  Items are assigned stable URLs and, for some outputs such as PhD theses and reports, DOIs 
• Usage insights 
  Download statistics help demonstrate reach and impact 

Stay up to date with new research 

Work in communications or write about research? Stay informed about the latest outputs from ³Ô¹ÏÍø. 

• ³Ô¹ÏÍø users can subscribe to collections and receive email alerts (daily, weekly, or monthly) when new items are added 

• Subscriptions are available via Spiral once logged in with ³Ô¹ÏÍø credentials 

• External users can follow collections via RSS 

How to subscribe

1. Visit  
2. Navigate to a collection (for example, Physics PhD theses) 
3. Click Subscribe and choose your preferred alert frequency 
4. Manage your subscriptions

Example reports and research outputs in Spiral 

Spiral hosts a wide range of impactful research outputs from across ³Ô¹ÏÍø, including: 

• 
  Institute of Global Health Innovation 

• 
  ³Ô¹ÏÍø Grantham Institute 

• 
  Faculty of Medicine 

• 
  MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis 
• Chemical Engineering Research: Reports of 4th Year Research Projects 
  Department of Chemical Engineering, edited by Professor Müller 
  This publication showcases undergraduate research projects and demonstrates how Spiral can be used to disseminate student research outputs in book form

FAQs about depositing your work in Spiral

The FAQs explain how to deposit research outputs in Spiral via Symplectic Elements, when and which versions to upload (especially accepted manuscripts), and how this supports REF compliance, embargo management, and open access visibility, with guidance on preprints, co-authorship, and copyright.