What is Open Access?

Open access is unrestricted online access to peer-reviewed, publicly-funded, scholarly research with minimal constraints on reuse. For an introduction to open access, see our Open Access LibGuide.

 What are the benefits of Open Access?

For authors it means increased visibility and impact of research. For readers it means increased resources without price or permission barriers.

Why do I need to publish my work as Open Access?

Most major funding bodies now make it a requirement for the research they fund to be made open access.

For journal articles, if your work is not open access it cannot be submitted for the REF (Research Excellent Framework).

How do I publish my work as Open Access?

There are two main types of open access publishing – read about them on our Green and Gold page. The university’s preferred route for making your research open access is the green route, as described in the institutional open access policy. This allows you to publish your research in your chosen journal and then make it open access by depositing the accepted version in the Edinburgh Napier research repository. We also have some open access publishing deals which allow Napier-affiliated authors to published gold open access at no additional cost.

Where can I learn more?

Peter Suber has written an introductory book called Open Access, available to read through Napier’s library catalogue.

There is lot of scholarship about open access now, including extensive evidence on the impact of OA on the increase in citations an article receives.