An Introduction to Open Access

Welcome to the Edinburgh University Press Open Access Hub! Here, you’ll find general information about publishing Open Access (OA) books and journal articles as well as specific guidance on publishing with EUP. Before we get into any depth on those topics though, it’s important to answer one key question: what is Open Access?

OA is a way of publishing that allows anyone, anywhere to read, download, reuse and (if you choose) adapt your work free of charge. It means that readers are able to have full access to your work without needing to pay for a book or subscribe to a journal. The book, chapter or article still goes through all of the usual steps to get to publication (assessment, peer review, revision, production, etc. – see our Early Career Researcher hub for more information on these steps), so it is verified and has the same level of authority as anything else produced by that publishing house or published in that journal.

There is often some confusion about the difference between an OA book chapter or journal article and a free book or journal article. You can find out more about those differences here. For now, we’ll just say that OA pieces have different licenses that allow other people to have more freedom to reuse and adapt your work as well as being freely available to read. Also, while free articles or book chapters can be moved back behind a paywall, once your work is OA, it will always be free to read, reuse and adapt.