Open Access and Scholarly Publishing

The University of Wolverhampton supports and encourages open access to scholarly publications. Open access refers to the provision of free, immediate, online access to research, which is also free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. It is a societal good that increases the reach and impact of research, empowering researchers, and the general public, by providing access to peer-reviewed work without the need for payment.

We have a range of support and advice for authors, looking to publish their research.

For those who wish to explore the concept of open access, a good introduction is provided by Peter Suber. Open access is often part of funder policies for grantholders, is part of the REF eligibility criteria, and part of the larger field of Open Research.

There are 2 routes for authors to publish their work as open access:

  • Author publishes in open access journals, hybrid journals, open access books
  • Publishing tends to involve paying a fee (‘article processing charge’ APC), which may be covered by deals and funds to which the author has access
  • The research output is made available immediately to anyone and they do not need to pay a fee to access it
  • Author deposits a copy of their article (usually the author accepted manuscript or post-print) in an institutional or subject repository such as WIRE
  • There is no cost to the author or funder
  • The research output is made available after an embargo period

The support provided for these routes, as well as advice on how to choose where to publish, is linked to below.

 

Image credits
Girdle Book by Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, shared under CC BY-SA licence.