Open Access publishing

Open Access does not change copyright, copyright law is extremely complex and exists in a long historical and wide geographical context. However, OA does enable a work to be published under a license that makes it freely available online and encourages sharing the work digitally.

As an academic publisher, copyright is central to our organisation and to the publishing industry more broadly. Our mission is to make academic knowledge production more open, inclusive and diverse and as such we offer a number of different publishing models, including Open Access.

Creative Commons is an excellent resource for licensing any creative work. Creative Commons licenses enable creators, researchers and publishers to legally share their research and contribute to a more equal, accessible and innovative world. Almost all Open Access work is made available through a Creative Commons license.

As an academic publisher with global distribution we are well versed in cOAlition S’ recommendations on Creative Common license types; for example, the fact that OA publications must have a CC BY 4.0 license. We are striving to match our Open Access offerings to support these recommendations.

We also understand the Research Excellence Framework’s stipulations regarding Open Access journal articles and conference papers. While monographs aren’t subject to REF 2021 Open Access requirements, we expect they’ll be subject to REF2027 or REF2028.

Journals created specifically for Open Access publication. These journals use a CC attribution license, and researchers retain the copyright.

Only some of the articles from the journal are available on Open Access, while others are only accessible with a fee.

These journals tend to charge a subscription fee to institution libraries and are only available as Open Access after an embargo period following publication. Embargos can last from a few months to over two years.

Bronze open access is one of the most common types of Open Access. With Bronze Open Access, articles and monographs are hosted on a publisher’s website and are sometimes subject to an embargo period. However, these publications don’t allow reuse.

With Green Open Access, articles are available through websites, institutional or subject databases, or on scholarly networks. Researchers can self-archive Green Open Access publications; for example, by releasing their article to the Social Sciences Research Network.  Students, professors and others can gain unlimited, free access to these articles.

Most Green Open Access, also known as ‘delayed open access’ publications are subject to an embargo period before they’re available to the general public without a fee.

Gold Open Access makes journal articles and monographs accessible to the general public without an embargo period or restrictions. Readers do not need to pay a fee to gain access and publishers generate revenue by charging authors or institutions a publishing charge or book processing fee.

Students, academics and general readers can immediately access new research as soon as it’s published. So, rather than relying only on the information available from their institution students and academics can study and research using the most relevant and up-to-date information.

Open Access expands researchers available resources leading to better, more relevant and more expanding research results.

Subscription based publication platforms put students from smaller schools at a disadvantage. The rising costs of certain subscriptions means that smaller or less well funded institutions often lack the financial resources to fully support their students’ learning. Open Access can help level the playing field by providing monographs and journals for free.

As a researcher, it’s important to create work that’s totally unique and contributes to the existing body of texts. This is much harder to achieve without being able to see what’s already available. Open Access helps researchers avoid duplication by expanding their existing search options and databases.

We believe that research should be widely shared. As a digital and relatively low-cost option, Open Access makes it easier to overcome price barriers and circulate research across the globe.

Open Access articles often have a greater impact than articles published on subscription only platforms. This is probably because OA journals and monographs have higher visibility and are accessible from any location making it easier and more likely that other academics will incorporate and cite the work.

Art history, drama and music books often have to source third party consent to use certain types of content and these rights are unattainable without a pricey fee.

As OA makes copyrighted material widely available for free, rights owners sometimes respond by charging higher fees to allow OA authors to use their content. These high costs often deter researchers from these disciplines from publishing OA, causing a very real imbalance across academic disciplines.

Art monographs for example are perhaps the most popular academic texts outside of academia and as such the viability of such products must include a reliance on commercial sales. Reaching the right audience then requires a very different approach, one that’s currently at odds with OA publishing models.

As authors and researchers from such disciplines are reliant on a more commercial model, it’s much harder for them to envisage a successful transition to Open Access.

As Open Access evolves, we must take these considerations into account.