Open access makes research outputs freely available to anyone who wishes to read them. Various types of licence can be applied to allow for different levels of access, for example limiting the use to read only or allowing commercial use of the material. The Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence is actively encouraged.
Open access is for the public good; it maximises the cultural and scientific value of our research when scholarly outputs are not blocked by paywalls. Improved access to scholarly content is likely to lead to new collaborations and institutions across the globe that are unable to afford journal subscriptions will have a fairer chance.
The university embraces open access and this is expressed in our Open Access Mission statement:
City, University of London wants to ensure that its research reaches the widest possible audience, both nationally and internationally. Open access publishing means that the intrinsic worth of scholarly content is magnified by the ease with which others can access this information and this will lead to benefits for society in general. Progress stems from sharing.
There are different ways in which research can be made openly available. The two commonplace routes are:
CC-BY Danny Kingsley & Sarah Brown.
