An introduction to Open Access

This guide has been produced to give researchers, publishers, librarians and information professionals a basic understanding of the Open Access movement and where we currently stand.

We are seeing a continued growth of interest across the world in the moves made in recent years to stimulate an ‘open access’ environment, where all research outputs will be available to everyone free of charge at the point of use.

Researchers now have access to greater volumes of research literature than ever before, but we are still far from a position where every researcher who needs it has ready access to all the literature that may be relevant to their research.  The current economic difficulties also bring with them the risk that library budgets will be cut, and that some of the advances in access over recent years will be reversed.

The guide is available to download below, or you can request hard copies from contact@rin.ac.uk