Open access

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What is open access?

Open access (OA) makes research findings freely available for anyone to access and view. Authors will benefit from the open availability of their research to others, leading to an increase in the visibility and usage of their work. Open access allows authors to comply with the Gold and Green OA requirements of major funders.

We publish Gold OA journals and books, working with publishing partners to develop OA for different communities. We also support social sharing and Green OA (also called Green archiving) across our journals and books programmes, allowing authors to deposit content in repositories and commercial social sharing sites.

Gold open access journals

Many of our journals publish articles as Gold Open Access, under Creative commons (CC) licences, enabling readers to freely access and re-distribute their articles.

Gold open access journals

Many of our journals publish articles as Gold Open Access, under Creative commons (CC) licences, enabling readers to freely access and re-distribute their articles.

Green Open Access policy for journals

Discover details of how our Green Open Access policy permits authors of journal articles published by Cambridge to share versions of their work online.

Green Open Access policy for journals

Discover details of how our Green Open Access policy permits authors of journal articles published by Cambridge to share versions of their work online.

Gold open access journals

Many of our journals publish articles as Gold Open Access, under Creative commons (CC) licences, enabling readers to freely access and re-distribute their articles.

Gold open access journals

Many of our journals publish articles as Gold Open Access, under Creative commons (CC) licences, enabling readers to freely access and re-distribute their articles.

Green Open Access policy for journals

Discover details of how our Green Open Access policy permits authors of journal articles published by Cambridge to share versions of their work online.

Green Open Access policy for journals

Discover details of how our Green Open Access policy permits authors of journal articles published by Cambridge to share versions of their work online.

Gold Open Access content is published under a Creative Commons license, allowing free access and redistribution and, in many cases, allows re-use in new or derivative works. Typically, Gold OA content is supported by an Article Processing Charge (APC) paid by the author or their funder. We also publish Gold OA content that is supported by other financial models, particularly in humanities and social sciences.

Hybrid journals are subscription journals that offer authors the choice of paying an APC to publish their articles as Gold OA.

Green Open Access (also known as Green archiving) is the practice of making a version of a work freely accessible in an institutional or subject archive or some other document repository. Typically the author’s original (submitted) manuscript is made available, or the manuscript as it was accepted for publication after peer-review changes have been made. For some types of books, a portion of the final published version can also be made available. Click here to read our Green OA Policies.

Social sharing is similar to Green OA except that documents are typically shared in a commercial sharing site or scholarly collaboration network site, rather than an institutional repository. See our social sharing page for more information. Our Green OA policies include provisions for social sharing and Cambridge Core Share also provides a means for sharing the published versions of journal articles.

Open access resources

Find Open Access resources for authors, including; information on creative commons licences, funder mandates and policies and much more.

Open access resources

Find Open Access resources for authors, including; information on creative commons licences, funder mandates and policies and much more.

Open research

The open research movement seeks to maximise the impact and benefits of research by prioritising barrier-free access to research findings, data and methodologies.

Open research

The open research movement seeks to maximise the impact and benefits of research by prioritising barrier-free access to research findings, data and methodologies.

Open access resources

Find Open Access resources for authors, including; information on creative commons licences, funder mandates and policies and much more.

Open access resources

Find Open Access resources for authors, including; information on creative commons licences, funder mandates and policies and much more.

Open research

The open research movement seeks to maximise the impact and benefits of research by prioritising barrier-free access to research findings, data and methodologies.

Open research

The open research movement seeks to maximise the impact and benefits of research by prioritising barrier-free access to research findings, data and methodologies.