Open access refers to scholarly material that is free to view at the point of use (normally with some form of license that permits reuse). Open Access can refer to all forms of research, but is most strongly associated with journal articles and book chapters.
This video provides a brief introduction to open access publishing:
There are three main types of open access.
Benefits of Open Access
Open access should be viewed as a positive movement with many benefits to authors, HEI’s and the wider public.
Authors: Increases the visibility of research, leading to increased citations and impact.
Other Researchers: Enhances the discoverability of research, leading to increased opportunities for collaboration.
Higher Education Institutions: Promotes the research reputation of institutions, making their research easier to discover.
Compliance: Enables compliance with funder and REF policies.
Wider Public: Provides access for members of the public who would otherwise not have and speeds up knowledge creation and discovery, bringing wider societal benefit.
It is a common myth that open access content is not of the same quality as content published behind a paywall. This is incorrect: most open access content is peer reviewed to the same standard as subscription content. Most journals that traditionally operated a subscription model are now transitioning to gold open access content, and many diamond open access journals operate a rigorous peer review process.
For more information see our guidance on transformative agreements.
