Open Access

Benefits of OA

• OA improves the pace, efficiency, and efficacy of research
• OA increases authors’ visibility, and thus the potential impact of their work
• OA removes structural and geographical barriers that impede the free circulation of information
• OA increases the possibility of collaboration, which means there is a higher likelihood of better work and more capacity building.
• OA enables the re-use and analysis of published material to build new knowledge
• OA sparks innovation and facilitates interdisciplinary research and exchange of ideas
• OA strengthens the dissemination, review, and development of breakthroughs, not only for the benefit of research and academic communities but for society at large.

Science Europe Working Group on Open Access. (Revised September 2015). Science Europe Principles on Open Access to Research Publications. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. D/2015/13.324/3

Concerns and Misconceptions of OA

• Reputable publications are not OA Submission standards and the peer review process are completely separate from whether or not the publication is OA. If you want to choose a prestigious publication that is not OA, they may still permit you to deposit a pre-print of your publication in an OA repository (like Scholarship@Claremont). The DOAJ has quality control guidelines for journals and authors that must be approved before they will add a journal to their directory. Studies have found that OA publications are cited more than traditional publications.
• Authors have to pay to make their publications OA Estimates are that between 25-35% of OA journals charge publication fees (known as Article Processing Charges or APCs). These fees help cover the costs of hosting, review and editing. A few things to keep in mind: fees can often be paid by funders or your college, rather than out of your own pocket. Also, you can negotiate with traditional publishers to make preprints and post prints of your work available in an OA repository, for no charge.
• Someone can steal and publish your work if you make it OA Your work is still protected by copyright when it is in an OA publication, just as it would be as if it was published through traditional means. If someone does copy your work without attributing it to you, you have a copyright infringement case. Attribution is still required for OA content
• A lot of OA Publishers are considered predatory There have always been vanity presses and publishers who are more interested in making a profit than supporting and promoting excellent research and scholarship. OA has its share of questionable publishers. There are several resources that you can consult to determine if an OA publisher is credible or predatory:
  • Think, Check, Submit – provides a checklist to help you determine where to publish
  • Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) – a forum for editors and publishers of peer reviewed journals to discuss all aspects of publication ethics.
  • Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) they can’t guarantee that no publisher or journal on their lists is predatory, they attempt to include only high quality journals and publishers.
  • Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) – If a journal isn’t predatory, the publisher should be a member of the OASPA.

Resources for learning more about OA

• Authors Alliance (2015). Understanding Open Access: When, Why, & How to Make Your Work Openly Accessible. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
• Suber, Peter (2009). Open Access. The MIT Press. CC-BY-NC.