Q. What is Open Access?

A good place to start locating Open Access publications is DOAJ (the Directory of Open Access Journals) which indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. These are known as Fully Gold Open Access journals. ​

The Open Research Webpages has information on how to make your work available via Open Access. There are two routes known as "Green" Open Access and "Gold" Open Access. The Guide explains both terms and how they work. 

Making book chapters or monographs available Open Access works differently than journal articles or other types of research outputs. 

In most cases, authors sign their copyright over to the publisher so they cannot make chapters or monographs available via Green Open Access i.e. depositing it in Liverpool Elements to be made available in the University's Repository.  However, this is not always the case so please check with your publisher. You can also speak to your publisher about changing the licence under which the work will be made available to allow you to make it openly available. A ready-made licence addendum has been produced which you can use.

Publishers are increasingly offering the option to publish monographs via Gold Open Access by paying a book processing charge (BPC). The prices for this vary hugely depending on the publisher and can range from £2000 to over £10,000.

If making book chapters, monographs or other long-form research outputs Open Access is a requirement of a grant, make sure you factor in these costs when you initially apply for the grant. For other options, please contact the Scholarly Communications Librarian. 

Please note that book chapters and monographs are not currently within the scope of the REF Open Access policy, so although we encourage you to make them openly available where possible, it is not compulsory. Research England however have indicated that it is likely that they will be included in the post-2021 REF with anything published from the 1st January 2021 being within the scope of the policy.

To apply for funding for a Gold Open Access payment please complete the form which can be found on the Open Research webpages.

The Open Research webpages provides information on copyright, licences and Open Access resources, including information about Creative Commons Licences. For further help, please email the Scholarly Communications Librarian.  

Not necessarily; in fact, Open Access publishing can often offer you as an author more control over your published work than subscription publishing, where you will likely be required to assign full copyright in your work to the publisher. See the Open Research webpages for more information.