An Introduction to Open Access

Randall LibraryOctober 21, 2014

Our Participants

• Kristin Andrews – Social Sciences & Humanities Librarian

• Dr. Nandana Bose – Film Studies• Dr. Daniel Johnson – Music• Dr. Anita McDaniel – Communication Studies• Dr. Colleen Reilly – English • Dr. Karl Ricanek – Computer Science• Dr. Ann Stapleton – Biology

What is Open Access?

• Freely available (both access & cost)

• Shareable: can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or link

See the Budapest Open Access Initiative for a full definition.

Why Open Access?

• Increases visibility, transparency & impact• Speeds up innovation & research• Increases the availability of materials for your

research• Provides access to individuals, smaller

institutions, and poorer countries that can’t afford expensive journals/databases

• Provides free access to publicly funded research (e.g. NIH Public Access Policy)

Why Open Access?

What’s Wrong with the Traditional Model?• We pay twice– For the original research– For the subscription

• Journals are expensive. Libraries must keep cutting resources to keep up with inflation.

• It benefits publishers, not authors (you don’t get royalties for articles, do you?)

• Research is a public good locked behind a paywall

Types of Open Access

• Green: Author deposits copy or pre-print in a repository (e.g. NCDOCKS or PubMed Central)

• Gold: Author publishes in an OA journal

• Hybrid: Author publishes in a journal that makes articles OA only if the author or institution pays a fee.

Author Rights

Don’t Sign Away Your Rights!

Learn more about Author Rights & get an Author Addendum you can use from SPARC.

Open Access Myths

• OA articles are not peer reviewed/lower quality

• You can’t make an article published in a traditional journal OA

• OA is incompatible with copyright• All OA journals charge publication fees• If there is a fee, the individual author has to

pay it

Further Reading & Resources• International Open Access Week– Intro to OA– What Faculty Can Do– What Librarians Can Do

• SPARC (Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition)– About OA– Author Rights– Benefits of OA

Further Reading & Resources• Open Access Scholarly Information Sourceboo

k• Open Access: six myths to put to rest• Open Access Button• NC DOCKS: Institutional repository where you

can deposit your work