Choose open access when publishing your research

Open access allows others to read your research without barriers. It also gives other researchers greater opportunity to build upon your work.

Get your open access questions answered with this useful guide, and then choose open access with Taylor & Francis.

Open access (OA) is the process of making published academic articles freely and permanently available online. Anyone, anywhere can read and build upon this research. You can learn more about how open access works.

What is open research?

Open research is a movement to open up all the outputs of scholarly activity. This includes elements such as data, computer code, and citations.

Taylor & Francis is committed to enabling sustainable open research initiatives that lead to more open scholarly communications.

Taylor & Francis books open access allows authors and their funders to publish open access books, edited collections and individual chapters.

Upon publication, Taylor & Francis books open access titles are immediately made available in digital format to read and download freely under a Creative Commons license.

To find out more about the open access initiatives at Taylor & Francis, sign up to our Research Insights newsletter. You will receive advice, tips and updates to help you get published.

Open access publishing definitions

Get to know and understand open access terms by reading our glossary.

Open access is great for readers because it gives them immediate access to the latest research. There are also many advantages to you, the author. Read more about the benefits of open access.

Why publish open access with Taylor & Francis

  • A wide choice of high-quality journals, ranging across disciplines and subject areas. 

  • Input from, and dialog with, expert editors and editorial boards.

  • Rigorous peer review for every open access article.

  • Rapid online publication.

  • Immediate access to your article on publication, accessible by anyone, anywhere.

  • High visibility and discoverability via Taylor & Francis Online

  • Global marketing and publicity, ensuring your article reaches the people you want it to.

  • Metrics (downloads, citations, and Altmetric data) for your article, so you can measure its impact.

  • Retention of full copyright of your article through unrestrictive publishing agreements.

  • Guaranteed legacy preservation of your article.

  • Discounts and waivers for authors in developing regions.

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Open access is great for readers because it gives them immediate access to the latest research. There are also many advantages to you, the author. Read more about the benefits of open access.

Publishing options

All the information on open access publishing options for each Taylor & Francis and Routledge journal is available in our open access cost finder.

You can use this page to check:

  • Which of our journals offer gold open access.

  • What the current article publishing charge (APC) is on specific journals.

  • What the green OA embargo periods are on our journals.

  • Which licenses you can publish under.

Gold open access means that the final published version of your article (or Version of Record) is permanently and freely available online for anyone, anywhere to read. An article publishing charge (APC) is usually applicable if you publish gold OA.

Choose Open with Taylor & Francis and view all the gold open access options available to you.

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Licenses

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When you publish gold open access with Taylor & Francis we ask you to sign a publishing agreement. This gives us the right to publish the Version of Record of your article. You, the author, retain copyright. The agreement includes the Creative Commons license of your choice. This dictates what others can do with your article once it’s published.

Green OA, also known as self-archiving, is when you post an earlier version of your manuscript in repositories and online. This enables you to share your article without having to pay an APC. Please note, an embargo period usually applies.

For details about green open access embargo periods and license options for all Taylor & Francis and Routledge journals, visit the open access cost finder

Repositories

A repository is a digital platform used to host and preserve scholarly outputs. If you’re based at a research institution, you’re probably required to place a version of your article in their repository. If your article has been published gold open access in a Taylor & Francis journal you can deposit a PDF of the Version of Record in the repository as soon as it’s published.

One of the concerns sometimes raised about open access is that journals might be unreliable. There is a fear that peer review, the process which underpins research integrity, might be missing from open access publishing. While you should be aware there are some open access journals which do not follow the highest standards, most open access titles provide a trustworthy service for authors and readers.

Find out what makes a good quality open access journal.

The Taylor & Francis commitment to peer review quality

Taylor & Francis Group journals provide researchers with rigorous, constructive, and timely peer review for all manuscripts. This is regardless of whether they intend to publish open access. Anyone reading or publishing open access with Taylor & Francis can be reassured that the same high standards apply as in subscription publishing models. 

Taylor & Francis is a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) and a publisher member of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Both organizations uphold the highest standards of open access publishing.

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Supporting Think.Check.Submit

Taylor & Francis supports Think. Check. Submit. The campaign empowers authors to evaluate the trustworthiness of a journal or its publisher. By using the simple checklist provided on the Think. Check. Submit. website, authors can make an informed choice before sending their articles for review. 

Taylor & Francis apply the same high standards to the open access publishing process, as we do in traditional publishing models.

Article publishing charges

If you choose to make the final version of your article open access (gold OA) there will often be an associated article publishing charge (APC). APCs vary by journal and may depend on the type of article you’ve written. However, there are many funding options available to help authors cover these charges. 

Please note that these charges are exclusive of tax. You can also find the standard APC for any Taylor & Francis journal by using our open access cost finder, or visit F1000Research

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Funding

The charge for your article may differ from the standard APC if your institution or research funder has an open access publishing agreement or an open access membership with Taylor & Francis.

There are also discounts and waivers for researchers in developing countries when they publish in full open journals. Alternatively, you may choose to make your work open via the green OA route. This enables you to share your article without having to pay an APC. 

Read more about open access funding options.

When your article is published in a Taylor & Francis journal, there will be several versions of your work from the different stages of the writing and publishing process. Before sharing your article, it is important to understand the options available for these different versions.

Read our guide to sharing different versions of your article.

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On journal websites you may come across some articles labelled ‘free access’. They’re identified on Taylor & Francis Online by this icon: 

Free access icon

These are articles in subscription journals which are available for non-subscribers to read. Sometimes these are pages in the journal that aren’t full research articles, including editorials, letters, or obituaries. Or the free access may be for promotional reasons, such as making articles which are part of a press campaign more widely available.

What is open access and free access?

The main differences between these free access articles and those published open access are:

Reuse
Unlike the final versions of subscription articles, open access articles will always have a license which allows reuse of the work by third parties.

Time limit
Free access articles might only be available to non-subscribers for a set period. Open access papers are guaranteed to be available for anyone to read, anywhere, forever.

What is gold and green open access?

Learn more about our gold open access and green open access publishing options, and relevant pricing.

How do I request a waiver?

See our guide on requesting a waiver.

How much are open access fees?

The fees will differ depending on what type of open access you go for. More information about the different publishing options are available in our open access cost finder.

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