Oxford University Press (OUP) is marking two decades of open access (OA) publishing in 2025, following the conversion of Nucleic Acids Research to a fully open access model in 2005, alongside the introduction of hybrid OA options. Since then, the publisher has steadily expanded its OA portfolio across both journals and monographs, reflecting a long-term commitment to supporting global access to scholarly research.
OUP now publishes over 150 fully OA journals across a broad range of disciplines and geographic regions. The Oxford Open series, launched in recent years, includes journals addressing key areas such as climate change, energy, economics, materials science, and digital health. The portfolio has also been expanded through collaborations with scholarly societies and associations, including the recent launch of Research Connections, a new journal dedicated to medical and healthcare research.
The expansion of OA has been supported by the establishment of numerous read-and-publish agreements, including new 2025 arrangements in California, Colombia, and Hong Kong. These agreements allow researchers at participating institutions to access journal content and publish open access, contributing significantly to OUP’s transition to a majority-OA publisher in 2024.
While OA adoption in journals has grown steadily, progress has been slower in the monograph space due to differences in publishing models, funding structures, and life cycles. In response, OUP has introduced several new initiatives designed to expand OA options for monographs:
• Commit to Open: A pilot program allowing customers to fund collections of OA monographs, including a collection authored by Early Career Researchers (ECRs), active through July 2025.
• Subscribe to Open: A model in which OA publication is supported by continued subscriptions. Under this approach, the Max Planck Encyclopedias of Public International Law have been made OA through at least April 2026.
• Early Career Researcher First Book Prize: An annual award offering OA publication without charge for selected debut monographs authored by ECRs.
OUP also offers a 40% discount on OA book publishing charges for ECRs and is exploring additional models to support early career authors. In its journals programme, the publisher provides full waivers for OA publication to researchers in more than 100 countries, along with discretionary waivers for others, in line with its stated commitment to equitable access.
As the OA publishing environment continues to evolve, OUP plans to expand its efforts through new journals, publishing models, and institutional agreements, with a continued focus on accessibility, sustainability, and inclusion.
Click here to read the original press release.
