A successful first year for the Open Access Fund

Essex’s Open Access Fund has enjoyed an exciting first full year since launching in July 2023.

Success for the Open Access Team, part of Research Services of Essex’s Library and Cultural Services section, is helping Essex authors make their research as widely available as possible. Through paying the processing charges many academic publishers levy for open access, the Open Access Fund removes the barrier of cost for readers all over the world. 

Every article, chapter or book published open access is freely available to download and share online, expanding reach and increasing impact. 

Supporting Essex authors

Professor Chris Greer, Pro-Vice Chancellor Research and a supporter of open access and open research, reflected on a successful year for the Open Access Fund:

"We are committed to the view that research should be as open as possible, as closed as necessary. We are now seeing the benefits of our institutional investment to realising that commitment."

"Publishing open access is fundamental to increasing the visibility of the fantastic work our researchers are producing. With this new fund, we’re removing as many barriers as we can to ensure that research published by Essex authors reaches the widest possible audience."

We are delighted to have been able to support so many authors to publish their articles, chapters, monographs, or edited collections, and doubly delighted to be helping so many new open access projects to completion.

Year one in numbers

Since July 2023, the Open Access Fund has published:

• 50 journal articles
• 6 monographs
• 5 chapters

Looking ahead to next year we are already committed to:

• Supporting an additional 36 open access projects
• With 18 publishers from around the globe 
• And authors from 11 different departments

With the publication timelines for journal articles being much shorter, we don’t have information on these outputs as far in advance. However, we can feel confident we’ll be supporting plenty more authors of open access articles next year too!

What our Open Access Fund published authors said 

Dr Ana Minozzo

Dr Ana Minozzo from the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies published Anxiety as Vibration: A Psychosocial Cartography (Palgrave, 2024) using the Open Access Fund in July 2024 and offered this wonderful feedback:

"The Open Access Team at Essex has been phenomenal in supporting our academic community to catch up with this more accessible way of divulging our work. […] Just knowing open access was a possibility and all the ways one could go about it from the start of my journey with the publishers made the whole difference."

You can read more about Dr Ana Minozzo’s open access publishing experience in this blog post.

Dr Rodrigo Nunes

Dr Rodrigo Nunes of Essex Business School published his new book Bolsonarismo y Extrema Derecha Global: Una Gramática de la Desintegración (Tinta Limón Ediciones, 2024) using the Open Access Fund in June 2024. Bolsonarismo y Extrema Derecha Global: Una Gramática de la Desintegración has the distinction of being our first open access funded work in a language other than English.

Dr Nunes has this to say about open access publication: "open access is a way to do what we, as academics and public intellectuals, really want to do – which is to reach the largest possible number of people with our ideas, to see them engaged with and discussed, to be part of a broad social conversation."

You can read more about Dr Rodrigo Nunes’ open access publishing experience in this blog post.

Professor Carla Ferstman

Professor Carla Ferstman from Essex Law School published her work Conceptualising Arbitrary Detention: Power, Punishment and Control (Bristol University Press, 2024) using the Open Access Fund in May 2024.

She had this to say about open access publication: "Open access meant that the book – which covers scenarios in all parts of the world – can be read by, and provoke discussions and debates with, readers around the world. The process worked very well. I cannot see any downsides to publishing in this way."

You can read more about Professor Carla Ferstman’s open access publishing experience in this blog post.

Dr Peter Appleton

Dr Peter Appleton of the School of Health and Social Care published his book What Matters and Who Matters to Young People Leaving Care: A New Approach to Planning (Bristol University Press, 2024) using the Open Access Fund in April 2024.

"Hearing that Essex would fully fund open access for this book transformed my sense of how the book might be received. I am delighted that those care-experienced and cash-strapped young people who may want to read the book, can do just that, quite apart from professionals in nascent multi-agency transition-from-care services, whose services may also be financially constrained!"

You can read more about Dr Peter Appleton’s open access publishing experience in this blog post.

Dr Alexandros Antoniou

Dr Alexandros Antoniou from Essex Law School published the chapter Homosexuality, Defamatory Meaning, and Reputational Injury in English Law in Diverse Voices in Tort Law (Bristol University Press, 2024) using the Open Access Fund in March 2024.

"Embracing open access resonates with my commitment to democratising knowledge. By making my chapter freely available, I can broaden its reach, engaging researchers, practitioners, and policy makers as well as individuals who may not have access to academic resources restricted by paywalls."

You can read more about Dr Alexandros Antoniou’s open access publishing experience in this blog post.

Dr Erin Pobjie

Dr Erin Pobjie of Essex Law School published her book Prohibited Force: The Meaning of 'Use of Force' in International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2024) using the Open Access Fund in February 2024.

"I chose to publish open access so that my book is accessible to everyone, in line with the principles of open science. Publishing OA allows me to share my ideas more broadly so that my book can hopefully make a contribution to scholarship, policy and practice on this important topic."

Dr Rebecca Clift

Dr Rebecca Clift of the Department of Language and Linguistics contributed to a major new essay collection on Embodied Scepticism: Facial Expression and Response Relevance in New Perspectives on Goffman in Language and Interaction (Routledge, 2023) using the Open Access Fund in September 2023.

"Making my chapter open access will give it unparalleled transparency and reach."

You can read more about Dr Rebecca Clift’s open access publishing experience in this blog post.

Find out more about open access publishing at Essex

The open Access Team is rarely happier than when talking open access, so if you want to discuss options for your work, or just want to learn more, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via email on oapublish@essex.ac.uk.

Or, if you have a project ready to go, complete one of the Open Access Fund application forms:

• Books and chapters 
• Journals

We also handle the UKRI-mandated open access publication of chapters, monographs, and collections and you can use this form to begin the process.

And finally, here’s to making even more great Essex research available to all in 2024-25!