Publishing open access: why and how

Open access (OA) publishing is more than making research freely available online. Most OA articles use Creative Commons licenses, which allow anyone to read, reuse, and share work, as long as proper attribution is given.

Read on to learn more about making the most of ENU deals with journal publishers and about our new open access policy. But first, why publishing open access is important?

Benefits of open access publishing

Open access publishing is a powerful way to increase the visibility of your research. By removing paywalls, it allows anyone—academics, practitioners, students, or community groups—to read, share, and apply findings. This can lead to real-world impact, influencing policy, improving education, and guiding funding decisions. It also enables faster collaboration across institutions and countries, especially within large, diverse research teams. Open access turns knowledge into a shared resource, helping to drive innovation and positive change beyond academia.

Publish open access for free with publishing agreements

Article Processing Charges (APCs) can be prohibitively expensive, but you can make your articles open access without paying a penny, thanks to our Read and Publish deals with journal publishers. These agreements cover both reading journal content and publishing your own work. You can find the full list of ENU OA agreements on our Open Access Blog. Most of these deals will allow you to publish open access free of charge in subscription-based (hybrid) journals.  Make sure that you’re the corresponding author and use your ENU email when submitting. If in doubt, contact us at repository@napier.ac.uk.

Updated Open Access Policy

The new Open Access Policy has been introduced recently, and it gives the university and academics more rights over their work (also known as ‘rights retention’). Because authors retain copyright to their research outputs, their manuscripts can be made publicly available in the Research Repository with a Creative Commons license. This allows all journal articles and conference papers written by ENU authors to be made open access, even in cases where OA agreements don’t apply. The only thing to remember is to upload your accepted manuscript to Worktribe!

Need help? Check out the Open Access LibGuide or get in touch with the Library’s Research Repository team. Register to an online session on 11th November where you will learn more about open access publishing at ENU.

By Patrycja Respondek