Open Access (OA) refers to the practice of publishing research without paywall. 

Traditionally, research has been published in scholarly journals or books (sometimes called monographs). Articles in academic journals were behind a paywall because publishers were charging subscription costs to libraries or individuals. 

In the early 2000's groups of academics have started to argue that with technological transformation (the internet in particular), there was no reason to keep academic research behind paywalls. This was emphasised by the fact that academic publishers increased their charges to libraries meaning that not everyone could access the academic literature as library budgets decreased. 

In addition, the large majority of research is publicly funded and it was argued that 'publicly funded research should be publicly available'. 

If you intend to publish part of your work before you have completed your PhD, publishing Open Access would be a good idea to put your name on the map. 

In addition, it would, in most cases, mean that you can reuse your work in your PhD without having to worry about asking your publisher's permission. You would need to check what reuse rights are accompanying your open access publication. 

You have a few options in publishing open access as a postgraduate students. The route you can choose will depend on whether you are the sole author or are co-authoring with a member of staff (your supervisor for instance), or with contributors from other institutions. 

1- Publish in a diamond open access publication. 

2- Use the University repository (Green route to Open Access) to make your work available to the public. 

3- Co-author with a member of staff and use one of our read and publish agreements.

For information on the different ways to make your work open access, read our Open Research and Scholarly Communications Guide. You will also find tips about how to select a journal or book publisher for your work.