Open access

Open Access Publishing at Edinburgh University Press

At Edinburgh University Press, our mission is to connect people and ideas. Open Access (OA) plays an essential role in this mission, as it allows readers all over the world to access the scholarship that we publish without paying a fee. We offer four routes to OA: diamond, gold, transformative agreements and green.

Diamond Open Access

Diamond OA means that neither authors nor readers are charged a fee. Edinburgh University Press provides diamond funding from our own cash reserves for a number of publishing projects that are central to our publishing mission, and are proud to acknowledge our other diamond funding partners.

Books Diamond OA initiatives

Edinburgh University Press Open Access Fund

Edinburgh University Press has launched a £250,000 project to publish OA editions of 50 research publications by University of Edinburgh staff, funded from EUP’s own cash reserves. These books are publishing 2023–28 in both print and digital formats.

Edinburgh Studies in Urban Political Economy series

This monograph series reassesses the urban political economy from transdisciplinary and marginalised perspectives. Diamond OA funding is provided by Edinburgh University Press.

Visionaries: The Work of Women Filmmakers series

The Visionaries book series explores the visual style of women filmmakers through a Film-Philosophy approach. Diamond OA funding is provided by Edinburgh University Press.

Journals Diamond OA initiatives

Research4Life: low- and-middle-income countries

Edinburgh University Press waives the APC for journal articles written by first authors based in Research4Life Group A Countries. In addition, Edinburgh University Press subsidises the APC for articles written by a first author based in a Research4Life Group B Country to offer a substantial discount for Gold OA.

Studies in World Christianity – Walls–Bediako Memorial Article

In 2024, Studies in World Christianity journal launched the Walls-Bediako Memorial Article to publish an article written by an author from the majority world offering original research on any subject within the broad discourse of World Christianity. The article will be published Open Access with the APC being covered by Edinburgh University Press.  

Film-Philosophy journal

The Film-Philosophy journal published diamond OA 1997–2024 thanks to funding from the University of Edinburgh. This funding expires at the end of 2024 and the journal will be moving to a Subscribe to Open model from 2025, but all previously funded volumes will remain OA in perpetuity.

Gold Open Access

Where departments have funding to support OA, or where a funding body requires, authors can pay a fee to have their book, chapter or article published OA.

Transformative agreements

Subscribe to Open (S2O)

A growing number of our journals are published on the S2O model, where libraries subscribe in the usual way and, if a set subscriptions revenue threshold is reached, that year’s journal volume is flipped to Open Access.

OpenUP

OpenUP is a collaborative project between 6 UK university presses to secure OA funding for first monographs by UK-based early career researchers. Libraries subscribe on a banded basis and their participation funds open access for the selected books.

Two Edinburgh University Press books have been funded through OpenUP:

OpenUP is part of the JISC Open Access Community Framework (OACF).

Green Open Access

Books Green OA

Monograph authors and authors of chapters published in edited collections can take part in our green open access policy. This allows you to place the accepted manuscript of your book or chapter into specified repositories after an embargo period.

Journals Green OA

All Edinburgh University Press journals are published on a green open access basis. This permits authors to deposit the 'accepted manuscript' version of their article in their institutional repository with no embargo. Authors may also deposit the accepted manuscript version in a non-commercial disciplinary repository after an embargo period. This policy complies with all current funding body mandates on green OA publishing/self-archiving.