One particular point of interest for readers of this blog: RCUK propose to allow a maximum 6 month embargo for publishers before making final peer-reviewed articles of record open access. However, a 12 month embargo will be allowed for arts, humanities, and social science research.
I cant find a detailed justification for this difference, but would be interested to see if anyone knows of it. Here is what we get from the document:
Because current funding arrangements make a six month embargo period particularly difficult in the arts, humanities and social sciences, the Research Councils will accept a delay of up to twelve months in the case of research papers arising from research funded by the AHRC and the ESRC. However, this is only a transitionary
arrangement, and both the AHRC and ESRC are working towards enabling a maximum embargo period of six months for all research papers.
UPDATE: Richard Van Noorden has offered an excellent account of this on the Nature News blog. View the comments for an expanded account. Props to Richard for getting the scoop on this so quickly!
RCUK are also requesting feedback on their proposed policy.
rcuk_proposed_policy_on_access_to_research_outputs.pdf (application/pdf Object).