Understanding Open Access

Open Access publishing means that research publications (such as journal articles or books) are made available openly and freely online for all interested parties to use. Often Open Access publications are provided with a Creative Commons licence, allowing more extensive sharing and re-use that would be possible under traditional copyright law.

This contrasts with traditional closed access publishing, where publications are only available to those who have paid a subscription or purchase fee (or have access via a library collection where such fees have been paid on their behalf).

Open Access publication has significant benefits both for researchers/authors and for wider society as a result of the far greater accessibility of research outputs it facilitates. 

There are two main routes to Open Access publishing:

• Green Open Access, where a copy of the publication is deposited by the author in an institutional repository or subject repository while simultaneously being published in the traditional way. This is done in accordance with the publisher’s policy on publication sharing and may require use of the Accepted Manuscript version. It may also require an embargo period to be set before the publication is freely available. This route can be achieved using the London Met Repository.
• Gold Open Access, where the publication is provided on Open Access directly on a publisher’s platform and the costs are paid during the publication process rather than by the reader. This can involve payment of a fee to the publisher (Article Processing Charge or Book Processing Charge). Alternatively, the cost may be covered by the author’s University through participation in a Read and Publish Agreement with the relevant publisher.