Open access at Oxford University
Welcome to the Open Access Oxford website
This site is for researchers, administrators, library staff and students at the University of Oxford.
The University supports the principle of open access scholarship and works with publishers, funders and the higher education community to do so.
We provide systems, tools and guidance to make it as easy as possible for you to make your work openly available.
New to open access?
New to open access?
Deposit your work
Deposit your work
Policies
Policies
Paying for open access
Paying for open access
What is open access and why should I bother?
Open access refers to material that is free at the point of access and licensed for reuse, so readers can use, reuse and share research easily.
You might be considering open access because your funder requires it, but there are many other reasons for doing this.
- More exposure for your work: Open access makes your work available to those who may not have access to the resources needed to read it. This could be researchers (including those in developing countries), government bodies, charities and individual scholars, as well as the general public.
- Greater impact: You can reach a larger audience, with the potential for more citations, media coverage and engagement with readers. Practitioners can apply your findings without barriers. Your research may even influence policy.
- Compliance: You’ll be confident that you have complied with the University, funder and REF rules.
- Public benefit: By making research and scholarship more widely available, open access can contribute to the public good and help advance academic progress.