Open Access Research: How to Read It Free

A lot of research is already free to read, legally.

Open access means a research article is free to everyone online, usually under a licence that lets it be shared and reused. UK public funders now require it for the work they pay for, and there are several routes to a free copy.

Updated 16 October 2026 · 5 sources

Journals can be open
Repositories hold copies
Preprints come first
Know which version you have

Check a version

THE SHORT ANSWER

Two main routes,
one free copy.

The 2002 Budapest declaration set out the idea.
Funders and libraries have built on it since.

JOURNALS

Open from the start

Under UKRI's route one, the final published article is immediately open access on the journal's website, normally under a CC BY licence.

Check a version

REPOSITORIES

A copy in an archive

Under route two, the author deposits the accepted manuscript in a university or subject repository when the article is published, with no embargo.

Where to look

PREPRINTS

Early, but unchecked

Preprint servers share papers before journals publish them. medRxiv warns preprints have not been certified by peer review.

Read with care

Hands holding a printed research paper with a highlighter beside a cup of tea, the text out of focus — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

FINDING A FREE COPY

Four legal places
to look.

If a paper sits behind a paywall, a free and legal version often exists somewhere else.

Check the journal page
Many articles are open on the publisher's own site, either in a fully open access journal or as an open article in a subscription journal.
Search repositories
University and subject repositories hold accepted manuscripts. UKRI points authors to OpenDOAR, a directory of repositories.
Look for a preprint
Servers such as bioRxiv and medRxiv give free access to every preprint they post, but remember these have not been peer reviewed.
Ask your library
Access to Research offers free walk-in access to over 30 million academic articles in participating UK public libraries.

TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING

More is open
than most people think.

One figure on how much research is free online,
one on what a public library can unlock.

28% at least

Share of the scholarly literature estimated to be open access

About 19 million articles, with the share growing: 45% of articles from 2015, the latest year studied, were open.

PREVALENCE · PEERJ 2018

30 million+

Academic articles available free in participating UK public libraries

Walk-in access to the full text, and you can check from home which articles and journals are available.

LIBRARIES · ACCESS TO RESEARCH

Sources: Piwowar and colleagues, The state of OA, PeerJ (2018); Access to Research website.

A QUICK VERSION CHECK

Which version
are you reading?

Free copies come in different forms. Pick the one you have found. The bar shows how close it is to the final, peer-reviewed published article.

Based on UKRI's open access guidance, medRxiv's description of preprints and the 2018 'state of OA' study.

Version check

Choose what you foundA preprint on a preprint serverAn accepted manuscript in a repositoryThe article on an open access journal siteFree on the publisher site, no licence shown

A preprint on a preprint serverNot peer reviewed

A complete but unpublished manuscript. medRxiv says preprints should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or be reported as established information.

An accepted manuscript in a repositoryPeer reviewed text

The author's version after peer review and acceptance, deposited in a repository. It may lack the journal's final editing and layout.

The article on an open access journal siteFinal version

The version of record, made open by the journal. UKRI requires a CC BY or other permitted licence, so it can usually be shared and reused.

Free on the publisher site, no licence shownFinal, read only

The 2018 study called this 'bronze' open access and found it the most common kind: free to read, but without an explicit open licence for reuse.

Sources: UKRI, Making your research article open access; medRxiv, About; Piwowar and colleagues, PeerJ (2018).

Rows of bound academic journal volumes on tall library shelves, lit by soft daylight — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

READ WITH CARE

Free is not
the same as checked.

Preprint servers do screen submissions for offensive or non-scientific content and plagiarism, but articles are not peer reviewed, edited or typeset before they appear, and no endorsement of their methods or conclusions is implied.

Open access also is not free to produce. The 2002 Budapest Open Access Initiative noted that journal literature costs money to publish, and called for new ways of covering those costs so that readers do not pay.

In conversation

Questions people ask

What does open access mean?

Research that is free for anyone to read online. UKRI describes it as results of publicly funded research being available to everyone for free, under conditions that let them be reused and built upon.

What are the main routes to open access?

The 2002 Budapest Open Access Initiative set out two complementary strategies: open access journals, and self-archiving of articles in open archives. UKRI's two routes, an open journal or a repository copy, follow the same pattern.

Is it legal to read a paper from a repository?

Yes, when the author or institution has deposited it there under the journal's and funder's terms. UKRI's policy requires authors it funds to deposit accepted manuscripts with a CC BY or other permitted licence.

Can I trust a preprint?

Treat it as preliminary. medRxiv says preprints have not been certified by peer review and should not guide clinical practice or health-related behaviour or be reported as established information.

Can I read paywalled journals at my local library?

Often, yes. The Access to Research scheme gives free walk-in access to over 30 million academic articles in participating UK public libraries.

Sources

Each figure on this page comes from the sources below.

Research,
open to read.