The University supports the principle of Open Access scholarship and works with publishers, funders and the HE community to do so. 

We provide systems, tools and guidance to make it as easy as possible for you to make your work openly available. 

• Making your article Open Access
• Article Processing Charges (APCs)
• Making your book or chapter Open Access
• Choosing the right Open Access website or publisher
• Choosing a licence for your work
• Open Access and the REF

Other types of outputs

If you are creating practice research works or data in your research, you need to think about making them Open Access too. 

You need to plan and prepare at the start of your research so you can preserve and share your data at the end. A data management plan will help you do this, so that your data are "as open as possible and as restricted as necessary". 

Finding Open Access material

Where to find Open Access books and articles

Under an international initiative called Plan S all scholarly publications that result from research funded by public grants must be published in compliant Open Access journals or platforms from 2021.

Open Access also has benefits for you:

• Introduction to Open Access (Jisc) 
• Benefits of Open Science (FOSTER Portal)

Maximise your reach

You'll reach a wider audience because it's easier for everyone to find and use your work. This will raise your profile and the University’s profile and may increase citations

Comply with the requirements of the REF

Journal articles submitted for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) need to be published using either the Green or Gold Open Access method. Future REF exercises will include Open Access requirements for other forms of research output.

Comply with funders

The University and an increasing number of funders require certain outputs to be open access as a condition of their support. 

• Use the Sherpa Juliet database to check funders’ requirements on Open Access, publication and data archiving.
• Read the University's Open Access policy (pdf).

Have concerns about Open Access? Have a look at this Eastern ARC  Open Access- addressing your concerns resource where we’ve provided a series of answers to common OA concerns that academics and researchers across the ARC may have.   

Need research support or advice? Email researchsupport@kent.ac.uk

Find out all the ways you can get in touch.