Publishing your research open access means making it free for anybody, anywhere in the world to access and read. It often also means giving others the freedom to reuse or adapt research while still ensuring that you are credited as the original author. That could, for example, allow somebody to create a translation of research into a different language so that it can be read by a wider audience. Open access can have advantages for both authors and readers. Authors can benefit from increased dissemination and citations of their work. Readers get free, equitable access to high-quality research (for more background on open access see https://openaccess.ox.ac.uk/start-here).
The reasons for choosing open access publication can vary. You might be committed to open science and sharing your research. Perhaps your funder requires you to publish research open access. Maybe you work with other scientists whose institution’s policy mandates open access publishing. Once you decide to publish open access, the path to actually doing so can be rocky!
Some journals will charge a publication fee called an Article Processing Charge. Depending on your funding status you may be able to claim this money from your funder. Alternatively, you could choose to deposit a version of your article with no charge into an institutional repository like the Oxford University Research Archive. The University of Oxford currently has a range of publisher deals which allow even unfunded researchers to publish open access papers in certain scientific journals with no charge. Deciding between all these different options can be confusing. To help researchers, we have the Open Access Oxford (OAO) website.
The OAO website has all the information you need, from the background to open access publishing and methods to deposit your research through to advice on how to pay open access costs. If your question isn’t covered on the site, you’ll find details for contacting the open access team for further help.
You can use the OAO site to keep up to date with new developments in open access such as changes in open access polices and the University’s approach to open access.
Finally, if you want to get a sound grasp on open access, it’s a great idea to attend one of our regular free training sessions. For beginners we would highly recommend our Fundamentals of Open Access session.
