Open Access/ Scholarly Communication

Head, Office of Scholarly Communications

Director, Collection Development Services and Systems

Judy Ganson
MULN 218
(479) 575-2130
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General Information

 

Open access generally refers to free online access to scholarly materials without restrictions. Free access is usually possible because authors self-archive their scholarly material or provide access to them through an institutional repository, they publish their articles in open access journals or they pay to make their articles open. Some high impact journals such as the Public Library of Science titles (i.e., PLoS Biology, PloS Medicine, etc.) provide articles free of charge while others like the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offer articles free of charge after a 6 month embargo period.

Open Access Explained gives a quick overview of why Open Access is important for students and researchers worldwide.

For more information see Suber, Peter. A Very Brief Introduction to Open Access. 2004.

Open Access 101, from SPARC from Karen Rustad on Vimeo.

There are three types of Open Access Journals:

  • Green – refers to self-archiving, generally of the pre or post-print in repositories. Most publishers allow green open access
  • Gold – refers to articles in fully accessible open access journals
  • Hybrid - typically requires the payment of a fee to the publisher to make the article immediately open when published.

Consult the Publishers with Paid Options for Open Access through SHERPA/RoMEO.

Articles that may be self-archived in repositories:

  • Pre-Prints – The author's copy of an article before it has been reviewed by the publisher
  • Post-Prints – The author's copy of article after it has been reviewed and corrected, but before the publisher has formatted it for publication
  • Publisher’s Version – The version that is formatted and appears in print or online.

If authors have signed a Copyright Transfer Agreement, the publisher's policy will determine which of these versions of an article can be archived in a repository.

SHERPA/RoMEO is a database of publisher copyright policies and self-archiving information that authors can use to check which version they may be allowed to archive. Not all journals are in SHERPA/RoMEO and it isn't always current, so authors may also want to check the publisher's website.

Authors are advised to check their Copyright Transfer Agreement when in doubt.

 

 

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