The Academic Senate of the University of California adopted an Open Access Policy on July 24, 2013, ensuring that future research articles authored by faculty at all 10 campuses of UC would be made available to the public at no charge. A precursor to this policy was adopted by the UCSF Academic Senate on May 21, 2012.

On October 23, 2015, a Presidential Open Access Policy expanded open access rights and responsibilities to all other authors who write scholarly articles while employed at UC, including non-senate researchers, lecturers, post-doctoral scholars, administrative staff, librarians, and graduate students.

UC campuses also provide open access to theses and dissertations by depositing them in eScholarship (UC’s open access repository and publishing platform) on behalf of their students. Policies and procedures for filing theses and dissertations, including guidelines for delaying public access to a thesis or dissertation, are handled by the graduate division on each campus, in accordance with UC’s systemwide Policy on Open Access for Theses and Dissertations. Find links to campus graduate division guidance on the Open Access Theses and Dissertations page, and contact your local graduate division if you have questions.

Deposit your scholarly articles

Upload a copy of your article or provide a link to an open access version.

Get a Waiver/Embargo

If your publisher has requested a waiver or embargo of UC’s open access policies, get it here.

OA Policies FAQ

Get quick answers and see a flow chart of how to comply with the policies.

OA Policies Contacts

See who you can talk to on your campus or in the Office of Scholarly Communication if you have more questions.

To read the text of UC’s open access policies or learn more about their history, visit the UC Open Access Policies Background page.

Questions? Contact us.