Menu
Looking for information on open access publishing or the F&M Open Access Publishing Fund? Visit the Open Access Publishing Guide!
The launch of the internet nearly 30 years ago allowed for the development of the concept of open access. Early open access initiatives included the launch of the online subject repository arXiv in 1991, the publication of several free, peer reviewed online journals in the early 1990s, and the development of the National Institute of Health's repository PubMedCentral in 2000. Then, in 2002 and 2003, three distinct meetings took place in Budapest, Berlin and Bethesda which gave rise to a formal and still globally accepted definition of "open access." The widely accepted definition of open access literature is as follows: Open access literature is digital, online free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.1
Although costs for digital publishing can be lower than print publications, open access publishing is not free. Instead of charging the reader for access through purchase or subscription, alternative business models have arisen that provide the publishers with the financial means for providing access to scholarship. One cost recovery model is the implementation of article processing charges (APCs). These charges are paid by the author (who may get assistance from research grants, his university, or his library) prior to publication. Production costs can also be offset by the sale of memberships, add-ons and enhanced services by the publisher. In some cases, journals are fully subsidized by a sponsoring institution, funder or other organization without charging authors or readers. However, while open access publishing has the potential to reduce costs, this is not the only driving force behind open access advocacy. The benefits to individual scholars, related institutions, scholarly communication, and the general researching public are also primary motivating factors.
There are two primary routes in which open access literature can be published or otherwise made available. These two routes are frequently described as "gold open access" and "green open access.
There are many ways2 that libraries and other institutions can support open access, ranging from simply providing information to enacting open access policies and establishing institutional repositories:
The content in this box is taken from the ACRL Scholarly Communication Toolkit.
1 This definition comes from Peter Suber, who is considered the foremost leader and expert on the topic. His Overview of Open Access is an excellent brief explanation of what open access publishing is and why it is an important initiative.
2 This list comes from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Library Guide to Open Access
Open access policies are increasingly being adopted by individual colleges and universities. These policies often mandate open access publishing and dissemination of scholarly activity by faculty at the respective universities and define guidelines for that dissemination, typically through the campus institutional repository. The following resources are useful for librarians who may be helping to enact an institutional open access policy or support it after its passage:
Good Practices for University Open Access Policies - this guide, developed by Harvard University, sets forth good practices for college and university open-access policies. It's based on the type of rights-retention OA policy first adopted at Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and the University of Kansas. although the guide includes recommendations that should be useful to institutions taking other approaches.
Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI) - organization whose members have passed or are working to pass open access policies at their institutions. See also the recently released COAPI Toolkit OA Policy Resources. The public facing version of this site includes various resources under "Files" including documents to assist with policy development, promotion, and implementation.
cOAlition S - an initiative to make full and immediate Open Access to research publications a reality. It is built around Plan S, which consists of the key principle of "After 1 January 2020 scientific publications on the results from research funded by public grants provided by national and European research councils and funding bodies, must be bublished in compliant Open Access Journals or on compliant Open Access Platforms."
ROARMAP (Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies) - searchable international registry charting the growth of open access mandates and policies adopted by universities, research institutions and research funders that require or request their researchers to provide open access to their peer-reviewed research article output by depositing it in an open access repository.
MELIBEA - Open Access Policy Effectiveness Indicator - MELIBEA is a directory and an estimator of institutional open access policies regarding scientific and academic outputs. As a directory, it describes the existing policies. As a estimator, it subjects them to qualitative and quantitative analyses based on fulfillment of a set of indicators that reflect the statements of an institutional policy.
Content on this page is taken from the ACRL Scholarly Communications Toolkit.
