1. What is Open Access?
Open Access is . . .
If an article is quot;Open Accessquot; it means that it can be freely accessed by anyone in the world
using an internet connection. This means that the potential readership of Open Access
articles is far, far greater than that for articles where the full-text is restricted to subscribers.
Evidence shows that making research material Open Access increases the number of
readers and significantly increases citations to the article - in some fields increasing
citations by 300%.
What Open Access is not
It is important to point out that Open Access does not affect peer-review; articles are peer-
reviewed and published in journals in the normal way. There is no suggestion that authors
should use repositories instead of journals. Open Access repositories supplement and do
not replace journals. Some authors have feared that wider availability will increase
plagiarism: in fact, if anything, Open Access serves to reduce plagiarism. When material is
freely available the chance that plagiarism is recognised and exposed is that much higher.
What is the problem?
Journal price rises over the last decade mean that most universities can no longer afford
subscriptions to all of the journals that their academics need. Even if a journal is available
on-line, this does not mean it is freely available: university libraries pay large subscriptions
to allow their academics to easily access journal materials on-line. Price rises that are many
times the rate of inflation continue to be imposed each year, further restricting access to
journal articles. The situation is even worse in the develop world, where journal
ing
subscription prices mean that many institutions simply cannot afford access to up-to-date
research.
Open Access Solutions
Open Access addresses these problems by taking the results of research that has already
been paid for and making it freely available on-line, through repositories and websites.
This process can have significant advantages for individual authors, for researchers, for
institutions and for the process of research generally by freeing up the process of
dissemination. Many funders haverecognised that the job of research is only half-done if
the results of that research cannot reach the widest audience. Some are formulating policies
to require Open Access to their funded research.
Public Access
Another aspect is that on a national level, most research is publicly funded and yet the
general public cannot get access to the results that have been paid for by their taxes. For
example, the majority of research paid for and carried out by the National Health Service is
not freely available - even to NHS staff. Restricting access to research has many
disadvantages. For instance, it means that there is often no readily accessible material
available to science journalists or the public to counter the regular scare-stories or reputed
miracle cures widely reported in the mass media.
Open Access Repositories

2. Open Access repositories can hold digital duplicates of published articles and make them
freely available. Subject to copyright (see below) authors can deposit copies of their
finished articles in repositories alongside their publication in normal journals. The available
evidence shows that this does not affect journal subscriptions. If the subject-discipline
circulates unrefereed pre-prints or working papers in advance of publication (like Physics,
or Economics), then these can be deposited. If an accepted method of communication is
through conference papers (like Computer Science), then these can be deposited: similarly
for fields that use book chapters or reports. Other fields like Biomedicine only circulate
refereed post-prints. Repositories tag peer-reviewed material to make this status clear. The
important point is that repositories reflect and support the existing research culture of the
discipline.
The system works by these electronic versions of article, or eprints, being deposited into a
database, or repository. These repositories are mainly administered by research institutions,
which confers the advantage of allowing local support of users. Such institutional
repositories share records about their content with service providers, who then offer search
services to users across every record that they hold. This means that a researcher using a
search service is searching across all reposiories, not just individual ones. Once the
t
researcher finds a record, then they can view the full-text direct from the instutional
repository. As well as services which ju search repositories, the full-text is also searched
st
by Google, Yahoo and others.
There are increasing numbers of open access repositories available around the world. The
OpenDOAR service allows you to search for repositories or for repository content. A list of
repositories based in the UK is available.
Open Access Journals
An alternate way of providing Open Access is to publish in an Open Access Journal. These
journals make their articles available for free through charging for the publication services
before publication, rather than after publication through subscriptions. Open Access
publication charges can be often included within the costs of research funding, so the
money for access comes through the research funder, rather than through the library
budget. Of course, the initial source of the money is often the same (from government
funding), but the economics of this model means that the overall cost islower. There are a
growing number of Open Access Journals, with a journal available in most disciplines. A
list of the ones currently available is provided by the Directory ofOpen Access Journals.
Some publishers are now experimenting wi h hybrid journals, where the subscription
t
version is still sold, but for a supplement - typically around $3000 each - an articles can
then be made freely available. It has been noted that far from reducing costs, this increases
the overall cost of publication. However, while the Open Access model catches on, this is
one way that articles can be made freely available.
Depositing in Repositories
There is no charge for using institutional repositories. The process of deposition typically
takes about 10 minutes and cons of filling in a web-based form with details about the
ists
article; then attaching a pdf copy (or similar), and then submitting it to the repository
administrator. Repositories have help-systems and guidance: some institutions may offer

3. personal assistance for the first few times you deposit. The process is quick and simple and
will mean that the article is then available world-wide to a vastly increased readership.
Be sure when writing an article to keep a copy of the final version, after all the changes due
to peer-review have been integrated in the text. Publishers sometimes refuse permission for
authors to use the version which have been typeset, but allow authors to use their own final
version, even though the content of the article is exactly the same.If you no longer have
your own copy, then sometimes your editor might be able to supply you with a copy of
what you sent them. However, it is always easier to keep your own copy of your final
version.
Funders' Grant Rules
A number of research funders now have rules in place which make deposit in an open
access repository a requirement of any grant. Other funders make a strong recommendation
for deposit, or may make additional funds available for publication in an open access
journal, or in one of the hybrid journals set up by some publishers.
Journals' Copyright Rules
There may be copyright restrictions in making an eprint freely available. Although the
majority of publisher and journals allow authors to archive their work under certain
conditions, other publishers are more restrictive.
Typically, when an article is published, the author assigns copyright, or gives a copyright
license to the publisher. Depending on the particular agreementthat is signed, the author
retains more or less rights to use the article. Some agreements forbid the author from
photocopying the article, using it in teaching, or mounting it on-line. Other agreements are
more liberal and allow the auth to retain rights to use the article as they wish.
or
Which Repository
Funders may have requirements for research to be deposited in a particular repository:
some subject-based repositories have been set-up for this purpose. SHERPA runs a service
called JULIET which lists funders' rules and if they have a requirement for authors to use a
particular repository.
Otherwise, the great majority of research-led universities in the UK already have an
institutional repository for use by their staff. A list of UK institutional repositories and
contacts is available from this site. If you belong to one of these institutions, then such a
repository is probably the best place to hold your eprint. Remember, other researchers will
find the eprint irrespective of which repository holds it - the place you store the eprint is
not necessarily the way that people will use to find the eprint.
If your institution does not yet have a repository, then if you work for an academic
institution in the UK, there is now a service called quot;the Depotquot; where you can deposit
research articles on an open access basis. In time, as more institutions establish their own
repositories, material will be transferred from the Depot to the appropriate institutional
repository. This will be done automatically and access will be maintained at all times.
Assistance

4. Repository systems are designed to allow academics to archive their own work. It is
generally a simple process and should take no more than 10 minutes. Like other IT
systems, when coming to it for the first time the process might take slightly longer; but the
input form is straight forward.