Oxford Journals
Oxford Open
Oxford Open

Oxford Open

Introduction
Why is Oxford Journals undertaking Open Access experiments?
Overview of Optional Oxford Open
Journals offering an open access model
Optional Author Publication Charges
Subscriber Test
Authors from Developing Countries
Oxford Open - 2008 online-only price adjustments
Oxford Open license agreement
Oxford Open Author self-archiving
Oxford Open and the Wellcome Trust
The Future of Oxford Open
Contact us
FAQs

INTRODUCTION

The Oxford Open initiative expands Oxford Journal's experiments with Open Access publishing models. We began our research in August 2003, with the announcement of the Nucleic Acids Research Open Access experiment. Since then we have extended our experimentation to include:

A full Open Access model for the whole of NAR
An optional Open Access model for approximately 60 participating journals (detailed below)
Full Open Access for the journal DNA Research
A mixed Open Access model for the journal Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

These initiatives are designed to do several things:

Explore the viability of Open Access as a long-term publishing model that is financially sustainable (for publishers, institutions, and authors)
Collect valuable primary evidence for analysis, in order to inform our future decisions on whether Open Access is a viable business model
Establish whether Open Access achieves wider dissemination and impact in a way that benefits the progress of research globally
Experiment responsibly, so that the journals we publish do not sustain any irreparable damage to their established quality and brands

WHY IS OXFORD JOURNALS UNDERTAKING OPEN ACCESS EXPERIMENTS?

As a part of Oxford University Press (OUP), the largest University-owned publishing house in the world, we have a central remit to maximize dissemination of research information, whilst maintaining the highest standards of quality and integrity (both for our authors' work, and in our processes and business practices). The exploration of new and emerging publishing models such as Open Access sits comfortably with this goal. It also affords us the opportunity to share our findings and experiences with the community at large, thus benefiting scholarly communication in the widest sense.

OVERVIEW OF OPTIONAL OXFORD OPEN

Through this initiative, authors of accepted papers will be given the option of paying an Open Access publication charge to make their paper freely available online immediately via the journal website. This means that readers will not need a journal subscription to view Open Access content. If an author does not choose to pay the Open Access publication charge, their paper will be published in the normal manner, but it will not be made freely available online immediately. This means that there will be a mixture of non-Open Access and Open Access original research papers within each journal. Open Access articles will be clearly indicated on the online journal's contents page.

In order to view the non-Open Access content in participating journals, a current subscription to the journal will be required. Online, print and combined subscription options will continue to be available to institutions. The amount of Open Access versus non-Open Access content in each journal is regularly analyzed, and this will impact the future online subscription prices - generally speaking, the more Open Access content published in a journal, the lower the future online subscription prices will be.

This optional Open Access initiative is in addition to our full Open Access experiments with NAR, DNA Research and eCAM.

JOURNALS OFFERING AN OPEN ACCESS MODEL

A list of journals which offer an open access model can be found here:

Journals offering an open access model

OPTIONAL AUTHOR PUBLICATION CHARGES

For each of the journals listed above, authors will have the option to pay for Open Access to their paper. The charge will depend on whether the Corresponding author is based in an institution with an online subscription to the journal (see below)**. Special charges will apply to authors in developing countries, and individual journals may offer variable charges depending on the paper type. It is recommended that authors refer to the specific author instructions for participating journals for details of charges.

For an author based at a subscribing institution:

Regular charge - £800 / $1500 / €1200

List B developing country charge** - £400 / $750 / €600

List A developing country charge** - £0 / $0 / €0

For an author based at an institution that does not subscribe:

Regular charge - £1500 / $2800 / €2250

List B developing country charge** - £750 / $1400 / €1125

List A developing country charge** - £0 /$0 / €0

**Visit our Developing Countries pages for a list of qualifying countries

We have chosen to set the same optional charges for each participating journal. In reality the actual per article cost associated with publishing in each journal varies, depending on such factors as frequency of issues, number and length of papers published, submission numbers and rejection rates. The reduced-rate charge for authors based at subscribing institutions is significantly less than the full cost associated with publishing a paper, and is subsidized by the continued sale of subscriptions. In the current funding climate, where many authors may not be able to cover the full costs of publication, a model that utilizes a mixture of funding sources (publication charges, subscriptions, advertising, etc.) is more realistic.

The above optional Open Access charges are in addition to any normal (excess) page charges and colour charges that might apply.

Oxford Journals asks authors to state the source of funding used to pay the Open Access publication charge, after having a manuscript accepted. This provides transparency for readers, funding bodies, and the publisher. If appropriate the information will be added to the Acknowledgement section of the article. It is not compulsory to provide this information, but we encourage all authors to do so.

SUBSCRIBER TEST

Authors can check whether their institution has an active online subscription to the Oxford Open journal of their choice by clicking the following link using an institutional computer - Oxford Open test page - and selecting the Subscriber Test for the appropriate journal.

AUTHORS FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

As part of the Oxford Open initiative, authors from developing countries are offered special rates and waivers. In addition, under Oxford Journals' existing Developing Countries Initiative, those based in over 40 'List A' developing countries can apply for free online access to the Oxford Journals Collection. Those based in over 30 further 'List B' countries can apply for deeply discounted access to the collection.

OXFORD OPEN - 2008 ONLINE-ONLY PRICE ADJUSTMENTS

For 2008 we have made adjustments to online-only subscription prices for journals that offer the optional Oxford Open model. These changes reflect the amount of open access versus non-open access content published within each journal during 2006, and have resulted in some Oxford Open journals experiencing a price reduction to the online-only subscription compared to 2007.

Our standard policy for 2008 is to price the online-only (and print-only) subscriptions to our journals at 95% of the combined (print and online) price. In the case of Oxford Open journals, we have applied a further discount to the 2008 online-only price based on the amount of open access content published in 2006 (Journal prices for a subsequent year are set at least six months ahead of each new calendar year, so for Oxford Open journals, we therefore look at the last full year of open access content).

Overall, the average online-only price increase from 2007 to 2008 across all Oxford Journals titles is 6.9%, whereas the average price increase for Oxford Open titles (with open access uptake in 2006) is 1.7%. Eight Oxford Open titles saw an absolute reduction in price from 2007 to 2008.

However, because pricing is dependent on many factors – including variations in page extent, issue frequency, and exchange rate adjustments, as well as open access uptake – in some cases open access adjustments will not always result in an actual price decrease from one year to the next. They may in fact have the effect of simply limiting the price increase to a lesser amount, as the discount applies to what the standard 2008 online-only price would have been, not to the 2007 online-only price.

2008 online-only price adjustments

OXFORD OPEN LICENSE AGREEMENT

Authors who choose to participate in the Oxford Open initiative and pay to have their paper freely available online will be asked to sign an Open Access license agreement which reflects the Open Access model outlined below.

Articles published under the Oxford Open model are made freely available online immediately upon publication, as part of a long-term archive, without subscription barriers to access. We have chosen to implement the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial license for articles published under the Oxford Open model. This means that users of articles published under the Oxford Open initiative are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display these articles provided that:

The original authorship is properly and fully attributed;
The journal and publisher are attributed as the original place of publication with correct citation details given;
If an original work is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative work this is clearly indicated;
No articles are reproduced for commercial purposes without the prior consent of OUP and payment to OUP of any appropriate fee.

This policy means that users have unrestricted rights to re-use Open Access content for educational and research purposes but not for commercial purposes . We believe that this provision will have several benefits: Oxford Journals can continue to act as a central point of contact for commercial re-use requests and will seek to protect the original author and the journal from misuse of published content; revenue resulting from such permission requests will be used by the participating journals to supplement publication charges for authors, thus helping to keep these charges as low as possible; and Oxford Journals will be able to monitor commercial re-use that could directly harm the business interests of the journal.

OXFORD OPEN AUTHOR SELF-ARCHIVING

Authors who choose to participate in the Oxford Open initiative and pay to have their paper freely available online are also entitled to deposit a post-print of their accepted manuscript and/or the finally published version of the article into an institutional or centrally organized subject repository, immediately upon publication. This is provided that they include a link to the published version of the article on the journal's web site, and that the journal and OUP are attributed as the original place of publication, with correct citations given.

A post-print is defined as the final draft author manuscript, as accepted for publication, including modifications based on referees' suggestions but before it has undergone copyediting and proof correction.