Open access

Open access (OA) is a key part of how Oxford University Press (OUP) supports our mission to achieve the widest possible dissemination of high-quality research.  We publish rigorously peer-reviewed, world-leading, trusted open access research, upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and integrity.

We work closely with our publishing partners to ensure that we offer open access in a sustainable way, supporting publications for their communities and offering researchers publishing options for making their research available to all and compliant with funder mandates.

Our open access publishing in numbers

• Our open access articles have the highest number of policy and patent document mentions, relative to volume of output, compared to other major academic publishers*

• Our open access articles have the 2nd highest mean lifetime citation rate compared to other major academic publishers**

• 11 of our journals are diamond OA, meaning authors publish for free and readers access for free

• We publish over 140 fully open access journals

• We have published over 350 open access books to date

• Over 450 of our journals offer an open access publishing option

• Our Read & Publish agreements cover over 1000 institutions at which authors can use funds to publish their article open access in an OUP journal

• In 2023 we published over 27,000 open access journal articles

Open access for Journals

OUP’s options for publishing open access in journals include:

Fully open access

Articles published in fully OA journals are available to all; no subscription is required. OUP’s fully OA journals use Creative Commons licenses and there is usually an Article Processing Charge (APC) for OA publication.

Hybrid open access

Hybrid journals include a mix of open access articles and articles available to those with a journal subscription.

Hybrid journals offer authors the option of gold open access publishing. With gold open access, authors usually pay an APC to make their research articles available immediately upon publication, under a Creative Commons licence with re-use rights for readers.

For articles published under a Creative Commons licence, readers can re-use the work under the terms of the applicable licence.

‘Read and Publish’ transformative agreements

OUP has agreements with many institutions to provide access to OUP journals for faculty and students and provide funding for open access publishing for affiliated researchers. Find out which institutions are participating, and how to take advantage of available funding for publishing in an OUP journal.

Green open access and self-archiving

OUP has self-archiving policies that permit authors to take advantage of green open access by depositing their accepted manuscript (i.e. the post-acceptance version, before copyediting) into a non-commercial repository. In non-commercial repositories, articles can become freely available after the proscribed embargo period. Find out more about OUP green OA for journals.

Inclusive publishing

OUP believes that the move to open access and open research needs to be equitable and inclusive for all. We want to ensure that authors can publish in their journal of choice. As part of our Developing Countries Initiative, corresponding authors based in qualifying countries publishing in any of OUP’s fully open access journals are eligible for a full waiver of their open access charge.

Open access for Books

OUP has supported OA for books since 2012 as part of our mission to publish high-quality academic and research publications and ensure they are accessible and discoverable.

Publishing your book on an OA basis makes your work freely available online, with no barriers to access. OUP applies the same peer review and editorial development processes to all books whether published open access or under a customer sales model.

If you are considering publishing a book on an OA basis with OUP, please discuss the idea with your Editor. In most instances, the open access fee for books is met by a research funder under their funding and open access policy. All prospective authors are encouraged to provide information on any funding which directly supports the research for a proposed book so that we can plan the publishing route accordingly. You can also consult our information on funders and funder policies.

When a book is published OA it is:

• available to read on the Oxford Academic platform both in a browser and as a downloadable PDF

• available on Google books as a full preview

• indexed in, and available from, the OAPEN online library and the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) as a PDF

• sold in print and as an eBook

As well as publishing new books on an open access basis we are also able to convert backlist titles to OA and if you are the author of a published work and a funder has made funds available to help accelerate OA by converting existing published works, please contact your Editor.

See the full list of our open access books.

Find out more about licences, charges and self-archiving for your open access book.

*Data source: Altmetric. Comparing number of policy and patent document mentions, relative to number of articles published, to Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, Frontiers, Hindawi, Institute of Physics Publishing, MDPI, PLOS, Sage, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley.

**Data source: Dimensions. Comparing the mean lifetime citation rate of open access articles to those published by Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, Frontiers, Hindawi, Institute of Physics Publishing, MDPI, PLOS, Sage, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley.