Open Access (OA)

Open Access (OA) is when research outputs are freely available without financial, legal or technical barriers to access. Anyone can read, download, copy and distribute the outputs, often under a Creative Commons licence.  This generates greater equality in access to information and knowledge, as there is no requirement to pay or have an institutional subscription. 

Benefits of OA

Benefits for authors  

  • More people can find, read, use and cite your work leading to enhanced reach and impact. 
  • Improved reputational standing due to a higher number of citations typically received by openly available publications. 
  • More opportunities to form new research collaborations. 
  • Compliance with institutional and funder policies requiring research to be open. 

 

Benefits for readers  

  • Wider access to research, especially for readers outside academia. 
  • No requirement to log in or authenticate. 
  • No requirement to pay for access, thereby benefitting smaller institutions and those in developing countries. 
  • Enhanced knowledge sharing due to the ease with which results can be disseminated. 

 

Types of OA

The four main types of OA are Gold, Green, Diamond (or Platinum) and Bronze.

The final, publisher‑formatted version of a research output is made freely available immediately upon publication on the publisher’s website. Copyright is usually retained by the author(s), and a Creative Commons licence is applied. A fee, referred to as a processing charge, must be paid.  

Publishing Gold OA in a hybrid journal (which contains a mixture of open and closed content) is referred to as Hybrid OA. 

Also known as ‘self-archiving’, the author deposits the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) of their work to an institutional (e.g. ChesterRep) or subject repository (e.g. PubMed Central) where it is made openly available instead of on the publisher’s website. No fee is required. Some publishers attempt to restrict the rights to distribute the AAM by imposing an embargo or a restrictive licence via a Copyright Transfer Agreement (or other publishing agreement). Universities have combatted this by introducing Rights Retention Policies. 

Identical to Gold OA, but there is no charge for publishing. Publishers supporting the Diamond model are typically community-governed, scholarly-led and not-for-profit. 

A publisher may make an output freely available on their website at no cost to the author or reader but without an open licence (e.g. a Creative Commons licence). Access to the output can be revoked at any time. Hence, this is not considered a fully OA publishing model. 

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Creative Commons licences

Creative Commons licences are open research licences and enable authors to grant the public permission to use their work under copyright law. They ensure that an author can disseminate their work widely whilst having control over its use because they retain the copyright.  

Each Creative Commons licence is made up of a combination of four elements. These are listed below:  

  • Attribution (BY) - The author must be acknowledged.  
  • Non-Commercial (NC) - The work can only be shared non-commercially. 
  • No derivatives (ND) - The work cannot be changed or remixed. 
  • ShareAlike (SA) - New creations must be re-shared under the same rules. 

Licences may include different combinations of the above elements, but attribution must be included as a minimum. 

You can find out more about all licences via the Creative Commons website.

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Support for Gold OA Transformative Agreements

Transformative Agreements (TAs), also referred to as ‘Transitional’ or ‘Read and Publish’ agreements, are contracts negotiated with publishers. Institutions pay a fee to enable authors to publish journal articles Gold OA and users to access content at no cost.  In order to use these agreements, the following conditions need to be met:

  • You must be a student or member of staff affiliated with the University of Chester
  • You must be the Corresponding Author of the article 
  • The journal must be covered by an agreement (contact LIS Research Support if you are not sure)
  • The article must be an eligible article type. Specific article types may be determined by the publisher, but, generally speaking, research and review articles are considered eligible.

OA Policies Funders and beyond

Many funders have an OA policy requiring authors to publish their research OA on, or shortly after, publication. The OA policies of all funding bodies can be found on the Open Policy Finder database. If your research is externally funded, check the OA policy of your funder before planning publications. Failure to comply may put any future funding at risk and damage your reputation as an individual and the University as an institution. 

Get in touch with LIS Research Support (researchsupport.lis@chester.ac.uk) if you are having trouble interpreting a policy or need any advice.   

OA policies and requirements

Many funders have an OA policy requiring authors to publish their research OA on, or shortly after, publication. The OA policies of all funding bodies can be found on the Open Policy Finder database. If your research is externally funded, check the OA policy of your funder before planning publications. Failure to comply may put any future funding at risk and damage the reputation of you as an individual and the University as an institution. Get in touch with LIS Research

Support (researchsupport.lis@chester.ac.uk) if you are having trouble interpreting a policy or need any advice.   

OA Policies What you need to know

Funders and the Research Excellence Framework (REF) have policies requiring authors to publish their research OA on, or shortly after, publication.

If your research is externally funded, check the OA policy of your funder before planning publications. The OA policies of funders can be found on the JISC Open Policy Finder.

Failure to comply may put any future funding at risk and damage the reputation of you as an individual and the University as an institution.

Get in touch with LIS Research Support (researchsupport.lis@chester.ac.uk) if you are having trouble interpreting a policy or need any advice.

UKRI OA Policy

Any researcher funded by Research England, Innovate UK and the seven research councils will need to comply with the UKRI Open Access policy, which applies to: 

  • 'Short-form publications’ (articles and conference papers with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)) submitted for publication on or after 1 April 2022  
  • 'Long-form publications’ (monographs, book chapters and edited collections) published on or after 1 January 2024. 

Please note that articles must include a Data Access Statement even if no data are associated with the article, or the data are inaccessible. 

Short-form publications can be made available Gold or Diamond OA (referred to as Route 1) and must have a CC BY or Open Government licence applied. Please refer to additional information on licensing on the UKRI’s OA policy page. In order to publish Gold OA, funded researchers can make use of the University’s Transformative Agreements.  

Short-form publications can also be made available as Green OA (Route 2). The Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) must be made available in a subject or institutional repository under a CC BY or Open Government Licence within one month of publication. A CC BY-ND licence may be permitted, but approval from the UKRI must be sought. At the point of submission, you are encouraged to add a Rights Retention statement, which is as follows:  

"For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission."

If you have been granted permission to apply a CC BY-ND licence or Open Government licence, this should be in the set statement in place of the CC BY licence.  

Long-form publications can be made available Gold OA (Route 1) and must have a CC BY or other permitted licence. Any images, illustrations and tables must also be licensed under a CC BY licence. The UKRI provides funding to support Gold OA for long-form publications. The application, overseen by LIS Research Support, is in two stages:  

  • Stage 1 - you will be asked to supply information about the publication. This should be done before a publishing contract is signed.  
  • Stage 2 – further along in the publishing process, LIS Research Support will ask for more specific details about the publication and charges. 

For any queries, please contact LIS Research Support (researchsupport.lis@chester.ac.uk).  

Long-form publications can be made available Green OA (Route 2) and must have a Creative Commons licence (ideally a CC BY) or other permitted licence. The Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) must be made openly available on an institutional or subject repository within 12 months of publication. Please check whether the publisher permits self-archiving of a chapter or monograph and the length of embargo requested before signing a proposal or contract. 

Other funder OA policies

If you are funded by the following funders, please refer to their OA policies (linked below). 

Wellcome Trust 
Versus Arthritis 
Blood Cancer UK 
British Heart Foundation 
Cancer Research UK 
Parkinson’s UK 
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 
World Health Organisation 

For any queries or guidance about your funder’s OA policy, please contact LIS Research Support (researchsupport.lis@chester.ac.uk).  

Research Excellence Framework (REF) OA Policy

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) was implemented to evaluate the quality and impact of research conducted by UK Higher Education Institutions. 

An OA requirement was introduced for REF 2021 and continues for REF 2029. The REF 2021 OA policy applies to journal articles and conference papers with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) published on or before 31st December 2025. 

The updated REF 2029 OA policy applies to journal articles and conference papers with an ISSN published from 1st January 2026. 

The REF OA requirements for journal articles and conference papers with an ISSN are summarised in the table below. Full details can be found on the REF Section 5 - Open Access Policy page. 

Where a paper does not meet the OA requirements, a limited number of policy exceptions are available. 

 

REF 2021 OA Policy (for outputs published 2021-2025) 

REF 2029 OA Policy (for outputs published after 1st Jan 2026) 

Rules for Gold or Diamond OA  

Automatically compliant   

Automatically compliant, but a Creative Commons licence must be applied. 

 

Version to upload if publishing Green OA 

Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) 

Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) 

 

Rules for Green OA  

AAM must be deposited in Symplectic Elements within 3 months of acceptance.    


AAM must be deposited in Symplectic Elements within 3 months of first publication. 

 

Maximum permitted embargo for AAM (Green OA) 

12 months (panels A/B)  
24 months (panels C/D) 

6 months (panels A/B)  
12 months (panels C/D)   

Licences 

None required. 

Gold and Diamond OA - a Creative Commons licence (CC BY preferred) is required. 

 

Green OA – a Creative Commons licence is encouraged. Please refer to point 3.3.3 of the REF 2029 OA Policy.  

 

University of Chester OA Policy

The University’s OA Policy applies to anyone affiliated with the University of Chester who authors or co-authors journal articles and conference papers with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN). While other publication types are not explicitly covered, authors are strongly encouraged to make all their research OA whenever possible.  

The policy states that all journal articles and conference papers must be deposited to the University’s repository, ChesterRep, within 10 weeks of acceptance for publication. For rules on depositing other output types, please refer to the Repository Policy.  

By following this Policy in full, you will ensure that any external OA requirements, such as those from funding bodies and the REF, are met.