Open Access: What is Open Access?

Open access (OA) refers to freely available, digital, online information. Open access scholarly literature is free of charge and often carries less restrictive copyright and licensing barriers than traditionally published works, for both the users and the authors. 

While OA is a newer form of scholarly publishing, many OA journals comply with well-established peer-review processes and maintain high publishing standards. 

While open access generally refers to published scholarly journal articles, the open movement also encompasses:

• open data
• open educational resources
• open science

Adapted from Gordon Aamot's, Liz Bedford's and Maryam Fakouri's Open Access Research Guide from the University of Washington Research Guides.

Increased Impact & Readership

• Open access publishing makes it possible for more scholars, policy makers, practitioners, clinicians, and the general public to be able to view, cite, and share your work. Your research could have a direct application towards current practices, methodologies, and policies.

Improve Community Engagement

• Community organizations, clinicians, and practitioners may not have comprehensive access to subscription journals, or the resources to pay for costly copyright fees. Opening research allows for publications to become actualized in the form of policies, treatments, funding allocations, and decisions. 

Provide More Equitable Access

• Open Access removes all price barriers for readers so anyone can view the full content of the work, regardless of socio-economic status or affiliation. 

Funding

• Funders may require Open Access publishing. Use this SPARC guide to learn more about U.S. Federal funder requirements.

Financial

• Library budgets are remaining the same, while serials costs are continually rising. Institutions are in the position of funding research, and then purchasing it back through journal subscriptions.

The Quality of Open Access

Myth: Open Access journals are not peer-reviewed and do not have as high a quality as traditional journals

Truth: The majority of Open Access journals follow the same peer review process as most traditional journals. Many indexes, such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) only index "high-quality, peer reviewed Open Access" journals. 

While it is true that some subpar journals market themselves as Open Access, many Open Access Journals are reputable and impactful. In fact, most traditional publishers have incorporated an Open Access option into their publishing models.  

Publishing Open Access

Myth: My preferred journal does not provide an Open Access option, so I cannot publish Open Access

Truth: You do not need to publish with an Open Access journal to make your work available Open Access. Many publishers allow authors to share a version of their work (either a pre-print or a post-print) on their personal website or on a repository. 

Publishers are also becoming accustomed to authors requesting an addendum to a publishing agreement, which signs back specific rights back to the original author.

Open Access and Open Educational Resources

Myth: Open Access and Open Educational Resources are the same.

Truth: Open Access typically refers to scholarly material, whereas Open Educational Resources (OER) refers to teaching materials. Open Educational Resources by definition are available under an open license that allows for reuse, adaptation, and redistribution. Open Access, on the other hand, might mean only available online free of charge (also known as Gratis Open Access). In some cases Open Access includes permission to reuse, which can sometimes make it compatible with OER.

Adapted from Davidson College Library Open Access Research Guide f

Open Access guide is a derivative of the Open Access guide prepared by the University of Washington under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License and by the Copyright on Campus guide prepared by the University of Florida under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Uported License. Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.