Reflecting on key milestones in our open access publishing
Open access (OA) publishing forms a core part of our offering to authors and readers around the globe.
From the publication of important medical research focused on improving patient care to unlocking opportunities for early career researchers to publish their debut books, we innovate in a variety of different ways, always in support of our mission to further the University of Oxford’s objective by publishing worldwide.
60% of our journals publishing is open access, with around 40,000 new journal articles available every year globally without barriers to access or re-use. In tandem, more than 450 OA books sit as part of our offering. Our open access articles are market-leading in policy and patent mention rate, demonstrating the quality, utility, and impact of our publishing, and the importance of enabling unrestricted access to research publishing.
This International Open Access Week, we have explored the 2025 theme of ‘Who owns our knowledge?’ alongside celebrating some milestone markers in our OA publishing programme.
Nothing about me, without me
This year’s Open Access Week poses the question: “How, in a time of disruption, can communities reassert control over the knowledge they produce?”
Delving into our open access publishing, there are numerous examples of research that doesn’t just study communities, but actively involves them. From shaping research questions to guiding implementation, these projects centre the voices and experiences of the people at their heart.
Read the full post and a selection of articles here.
Experimenting with books
We have been exploring OA models for books by launching and running pilots, and learning from these new approaches.
Rhodri Jackson, our Director of Open Access Publishing and Strategy, recently shared learnings and insights from our Commit to Open pilot and Subscribe to Open pilots, and how we will continue to innovate in support of our mission.
Read more from Rhodri here.
Unlocking opportunity for early career researchers
This week, we announced the winners of the inaugural First Book Prize, another initiative we’re proud to launch in OA books.
Awarded to early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences, each of the ten winners will have their debut book published fully open access by OUP—with all fees waived—alongside hardback publication. The award champions the humanities and social sciences, supporting clearer pathways to publishing for the best scholars worldwide and providing the benefits of open access publication, enabling their research to reach new, global readers. We could not be more delighted at the breadth and depth in the work of our prize winners.
Submissions for the First Book Prize 2026 will open in January 2026. More information about each of this year’s winning books and the next prize can be found here.
Working together with authors, research funders, scholarly societies, and academic institutions, we will continue to see our open access publishing grow, in terms of scale, breadth, and innovations. We look forward to seeing where we are in 2026.
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