What is gold open access?

Gold open access means that your publication is made freely available to everyone by the publisher immediately at the time of publication via the journal's website. Fully open access journals often (but not always) charge a fee for publication.

Gold open access usually implies that a Creative Commons licence will be applied to your paper. For further information on Creative Commons licences, please see our course on Moodle (you will need to sign in via Raven).

Please note that we are only able to pay for gold open access if:

1. One of our block grant providers (British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, RCUK/UKRI and Wellcome Trust) funded the research underpinning your paper, and the grant number is acknowledged in your paper. The paper must also satisfy the funder's open access eligibility requirements. 
2. The research underpinning your paper has not been funded by an external funder, or that the funder does not cover open access charges. In this case, you may be eligible to use the University's institutional open access fund. 

If neither of the above options are available to you, then possible alternatives include:

• One of the University's Read & Publish deals;
• Your research funder may be able to pay the open access;
• Your department/college may be able to pay the open access, or
• Consider green open access as an alternative to paying for gold open access.