Open access
Making your publications open access means your work is read more, cited more and has more impact.
Open access (OA) is when authors make their peer reviewed research articles freely available online through self-archiving on an institutional repository or via a journal website. Creative Commons licences clearly state how the publication can be used.
Routes to open access
There are a number of routes to making your article open access, which may include a payment.
Green open access
The most commonly used route to OA that requires no additional payment. The Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) is uploaded to an institutional repository and made available under a Creative Commons licence. The publisher usually specifies an embargo period before the AAM can be made available.
Pure is Edge Hill’s institutional repository, where you can deposit your AAM.
Embargo periods vary depending on the publisher but are typically between 6 and 24 months.
Funders and REF guidelines have policies on the maximum embargoes allowed (if any). You should check requirements against journal policies. Use Sherpa Romeo to check the embargo periods and policies of individual journals.
Gold open access
The article is made freely available immediately on publication under a Creative Commons licence on the publisher’s website. This route is dependent on paying a fee, an Article Processing Charge (APC).
There are two types of journal that offer Gold OA:
- Fully Gold journals only publish OA papers and therefore you must pay a fee to publish.
- Hybrid journals give you a choice of whether you want to publish via Gold OA or via the subscription model. A fee will be applicable if you choose the Gold OA route.
APCs are covered by using a journal that is included in a current Jisc publisher agreement that Edge Hill University is participating in. The usual way for Edge Hill authors to follow the Gold route is to take advantage of our publisher agreements.
If, as an Edge Hill corresponding author, you cannot take advantage of a publisher agreement, another option is to follow the Green route.
Diamond open access
Taking this route means that scholarly publications are publicly available with no embargo period at no cost to either author or reader.
Diamond OA journals are community-driven, academic-led and academic-owned publishing initiatives.
To find Diamond OA journals, search DOAJ (directory of open access journals).
Publisher agreements
As part of the transition to open access, Jisc has negotiated publisher agreements for some journals.
Hybrid journals are those that contain both OA and non-OA articles. You can find out more about the current agreements that Edge Hill University is participating in via the links below. Full details of eligibility are on each publisher’s website.
SciFree Transitional Agreement LookUp Tool Full details of our publisher agreements (Edge Hill only)Depositing your research outputs
Research outputs that usually have OA requirements are articles, conference proceeding articles, book chapters, books/monographs.
You should ensure that you meet any specific funder or REF OA requirements.
Deposit your author accepted manuscript on acceptance Pure Guidance Note: Advice for new staff Pure: Adding your research outputsREF 2029
The REF 2029 open access policy is under consultation. We are currently following the REF 2021 guidance.
OA and the REF (Edge Hill only) REF compliance in Pure – a quick guideOpen access tools
Use the tools below when looking for OA articles and journals.
- Sci Free: Search for journals included in publisher agreements.
- Transitional Agreement Look-Up: Search for journals included in publisher agreements.
- Sherpa Services: Consolidates Sherpa Services, Romeo, Juliet, Fact in one tool. Now includes OA compliance and transitional agreement look-up.
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): Index of OA journals.
- Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB): Indexes and provides access to scholarly, peer-reviewed OA books.
- OA Books Toolkit: Covers specific topics related to OA book publishing.
- Open Access Button: Find OA articles.
- Unpaywall: Browser extension to find OA articles.
- CORE: Collection of OA articles.
Open access policies
The University has an OA policy. Individual funders have their own policies.
Creative Commons Licences
When you deposit an article in your institutional repository or publish in a journal, you have a choice of Creative Commons licence.
You should meet any funder requirements in relation to OA and reuse. This is usually through publishing CC BY on the publisher’s website.
More information about CC licences (Edge Hill only)Further support
For more information about OA publishing, please contact the Open Research Team.