- Open access (OA) literature is digital content that is available online for free, without restrictions. The purpose of OA is to leverage digital technologies to more widely disseminate information. - OA aims to provide greater access to research, allow for wider dissemination of information, give easier access to researchers and readers, increase authors' audience and impact, and lower financial barriers. - There are two main types of OA - green OA repositories that archive authors' works for free access, and gold OA journals that perform peer review and make content freely available through author paid publication fees.

1. An Introduction to
Open Access
Timothy Peters
Director of Information Services
CMU Libraries

2. What is Open Access?
“OA literature is digital, online, free of charge,
and free of most copyright and licensing
restrictions.”
See Peter Suber’s overview is at
http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm

3. What is the Purpose of
Open Access?
The purpose of OA is to leverage the power of
digital technology in the name of wider
dissemination of information. Its purpose is not
to punish or undermine traditional journals.

4. The Aims of Open Access
• Providing greater access to scholarly output
and research results
• Leveraging technology to allow for wider
dissemination of information
• Easier access for researchers and readers
• Increased audience and greater
impact for authors
• Lowering financial barriers to access

5. Factors Driving Open Access
• A desire to increase access to information
• Slowness of information dissemination
• Rising journal costs and flat library funding
• A belief in public access to publicly funded
research
• Dissatisfaction with the current
copyright model
• Moral imperative

6. Green vs Gold OA
OA repositories ("green OA")
•Typically a repository, either institutional or disciplinary
•Authors archive their preprints and/or post-prints; a majority of
journals permit this
•Do not perform peer review, but simply make their contents
freely available to the world
•A form of self-archiving
•Generally free of charge

7. Green vs Gold OA
OA journals ("gold OA")
•Typically a journal
•Perform peer review and then make the approved contents
freely available to the world
•Many charge publication fees (APCs)
•Those with an interest in disseminating the content pay the
production costs up front so access to readers is free of charge
•Sometimes the author pays but many times
the hosting institution or scholarly
society pays the APC

8. A Changed Model of Publishing
Accepts submissions based on scientific rigor
and the consistency of the argument
Appeal to audience, novelty not considered
Publish first, filter later
Post-publication peer review

9. A Changed Model of Publishing
Disciplinary repositories:

10. A Changed Model of Publishing
Self-archiving:

11. Benefits of Open Access
• Information is disseminated more quickly
• Greater discoverability and access
• Studies show a citation advantage over
articles behind paywalls
• OA articles more frequently
viewed and downloaded

12. Benefits of Open Access
• Pushes against the negative economics of
current scholarly publishing
• Retention of the author’s copyright

13. Myths About Open Access
• It is free
• OA journals are predatory
• Access to information is not a problem for
researchers, so why do we need OA?
• OA journals are not peer reviewed
• OA journals are less respected, prestigious
• OA content is difficult to discover

14. Concerns About Open Access
• Do OA journals count toward tenure?
• Hybrid model: double dipping?

15. Creative Commons
• A nonprofit organization that enables the
sharing and use of creativity and knowledge
• Their copyright licenses provide a simple,
standardized way to give the public
permission to share and use your creative
work

16. Research Grants and OA
Publicly funded research may have an OA
mandate(Sherpa/Juliet)

18. How Can You “Go OA”?
• Post your preprints whenever possible
• Use a Creative Commons license
• Submit to open access journals
• Don’t submit to or do editorial work for
toll-access journals
• Learn more about open access
• Learn more about alt-metrics

19. Thanks for Attending!
peter1t@cmich.edu