Open access

Open access is a publishing model in which publications are made freely available online.  Typically the end user will also be given additional rights to reuse the work e.g. through a Creative Commons licence.  In academic publishing we most often think of open access in the context of journals, but other types of publications and creative works can also be made available in an open access form.

Open access is part of the wider concept of Open Research (also known as Open Science).  Open Research is a set of principles and practices that aim to make the whole research process accessible to everyone for the benefit of researchers and wider society.  The Leeds Trinity University Position Statement on Open Research describes how the University supports and promotes Open Research.

Open access publications are accessible to a wider audience which brings a number of benefits:

• Equitable access to research.  Subscription journals are often unaffordable for members of the public and for researchers at smaller institutions or in low- and middle-income countries.  Publishing open access removes this barrier.
• Profile raising.  Publishing open access can bring publicity to a university's research work and raise the profile of individual researchers. Open access publications are also more likely to receive citations.
• Advancing research.  Open access publishing allows researchers to more easily access the work of others so they can build on that work or avoid repeating research that has already been done. 

There are a number of different types of open access:

• Gold.  The final published version (version of record) is available free to the reader.  The author's institution pays a fee to cover the costs of publication.  For journal articles this is known as an article processing charge (APC).
• Diamond.  As with gold open access, the final published version is available free to the reader, but the author's institution doesn't have to pay anything to publish.  The costs of publication are covered by adverts or funding from a professional body or other funder.
• Hybrid.  Part of a publication, that is otherwise behind a paywall, is made open access e.g. an individual journal article published open access in a subscription journal.  As with gold open access, the author's institution pays a fee to cover publication costs. 
• Green.  The final published version is behind a paywall, but the publisher permits the author to archive a copy in an institutional or other repository.  The version that can be archived is usually the author accepted manuscript (also called the post-print).  This is the version after peer review but before any publisher formatting is applied.
• Bronze.  This refers to publications that a publisher has independently decided to make open access.  Typically, there is no licence allowing reuse and access may be withdrawn at any time.

If your research is externally funded, it's important to ensure that you comply with your funder's open access policy.  You may be required to make any research outputs resulting from your research project available in an open access form.  Use the JISC Open Policy Finder service to check funders' current policies.

The University also has its own Open Access Policy which is in line with that of the UKRI.  Essential points to note are:

• Researchers should create records for all their research outputs in Pure
• Journals articles should be made available in an open access form without embargo
• Monographs and chapters published after 1st Jan 2024 should be made available in an open access form without embargo
• Researchers are encouraged to make other outputs available in an open access form wherever possible

In order to be eligible for submission, research outputs need to comply with the REF open access policy.

The policy for REF2029 has now been published.  As for REF 2021, the new policy only applies to journal articles or conference papers published in proceedings with an ISSN; other types of research outputs do not need to be open access.  To comply with the policy, articles/papers should either be published gold open access, or you should deposit the author accepted manuscript in Pure.  Other details of the policy's requirement vary depending on the date of publication.

Publication dates between 1st Jan 2021 and 31st December 2025:

• If the article/paper is deposited in Pure, you should do this within 3 months of acceptance for publication
• If the article/paper is deposited and Pure and the publisher requires an embargo, the maximum embargo length allowed is 12 months for outputs that will be submitted to Units of Assessment under Main Panels A and B and 24 months for outputs that will be submitted to Units of Assessment under Main Panels C and D.

Publication dates between 1st Jan 2026 and 31st December 2028:

• If the article/paper is deposited in Pure, you should do this within 3 months of publication
• If the article/paper is deposited in Pure and the publisher requires an embargo, the maximum embargo length allowed is 6 months for outputs that will be submitted to Units of Assessment under Main Panels A and B and 12 months for outputs that will be submitted to Units of Assessment under Main Panels C and D.
• Whether they are published gold open access, or the author accepted manuscript is deposited in Pure, articles/papers should have a licence allowing reuse.  Ideally this should be a Creative Commons CC BY licence, but CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND, and CC BY-NC-ND are also acceptable.  (Alternative licences with similar terms and conditions are also allowed.)

The Library subscribes to journal packages from a number of publishers.  In addition to providing access to the subscribed journals, some of these contracts also cover the costs of article processing charges, allowing researchers to publish open access for free.  These agreements are known as transformative (or read and publish) agreements.  The terms and conditions of each agreement vary, so there may be restrictions on which of the publisher's journals are covered, or there may be a limit on the number of articles that can be published each year.  We currently have transformative agreements with ACM, Bristol University Press, Elsevier, SAGE, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley.

To publish in a journal covered by a transformative agreement, you should submit your article following the usual procedure for the publisher (check the publisher's website for details).  If your article is accepted for publication, the publisher will identify the article as eligible under the transformative agreement.  They will ask you to confirm that you would like to publish open access and then alert the Library who will approve publication of the article.  Further details on publishing under transformative agreements can be found in a guide published by JISC.

The Research Office has a small budget to cover article processing charges where funding is not available via a transformative agreement or other source.  For more information please view the Policy and Procedure for Payment of Article Processing Charges below.

• Call us
• Email us
• Opening hours
• Tell us what you think
• FAQs