Open access to publications
Open access to publications
Open access refers to the practice of making peer-reviewed scholarly research and literature freely available online to anyone interested. Open means anyone can freely access, use, modify, and share for any purpose, subject, and at most, to requirements that preserve provenance and openness. It does not affect authors’ freedom to choose where to publish or the right not to publish.
There are two major ways to make publications open access:
- Self-archiving:
Depositing a publication in an open repository and making it available, allows you to make a publication available in open access, regardless of the platform in which your publication originally has been published. The repository can be subject specific, e.g. arXiv; linked to an institution, e.g. each Flemish university hosts an open repository; or can be a general one, like e.g. Zenodo. Most publishers allow self-archiving in repositories. However, conditions may apply to which version you can make available, the author’s final peer-reviewed manuscript or author’s accepted manuscript – AAM, a version which is peer-reviewed but does not show the publisher’s layout, or the publisher’s version. An embargo period might be in place (usually 6 months for STEM and 12 months for SSH). Sherpa/Romeo, the database of publishers’ policies on copyright and self-archiving, can be used to determine the open access policy of journals and/or publishers. Moreover, the Belgian law allows authors to make scholarly peer-reviewed articles available in open access, in the final peer-reviewed manuscript and after an embargo period (Art. XI.196 §2/1). - Publishing scholarly works in an open access journal
Open access journals provide direct open access upon publication. To find a qualitative open access journal, you can consult the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The DOAJ reviews open access journals before acceptance in the directory. You can browse the open access journals by subject or by publisher. Some open access journals require authors to pay a fee, the so-called article processing charge (APC).
No matter where you choose to publish, always remember to upload your publications to your local/institutional open access repository.
Why is open access to publications important?
The main advantage of making research open access is often summed up in two words: visibility and impact. Open access articles are much more widely read than those which are not freely available on the internet. Webwide availability leads to increased use, which in turn, raises citation rates, a fact that has been empirically supported by several studies (OACA, Open Access Citation Advantage). Open access also underpins the idea that everyone should be able to consult research outcomes, whether a (young) researcher, a professional in the form of a concerned citizen, without having to pay an extra fee. And this is certainly the case for research funded with public funds.
The fact that the public sector has to fund research three times is often criticised: firstly, the scholars and scientists carrying out research and submitting their findings for publication are often paid by the public sector. Secondly, the submitted manuscripts are peer-reviewed by colleagues who are also mainly funded by public means. And thirdly, when the articles are published they must be purchased from the publishers by publicly-funded libraries and institutes. Taking these reasons into account, more and more funders opt to require open access to publications resulting from research they funded, to ensure the wider dissemination of research outcomes.
ALLEA Code:
- Researchers share their results in an open, honest, transparent, and accurate manner, and respect confidentiality of data or findings when legitimately required to do so.
What if you don’t choose for open access?
When researchers don’t choose open access for their publications it can result in a lack of visibility: only readers with access to journals whose content isn’t open are able to read that content. This means many possible interested parties don’t know about your research. It can also result in a lack of funding: many funders mandate open access to publications and are inclined to take measures if you don’t.
Some researchers think that open access journals are of lesser quality than the classical subscription journals. However, like before, there are more and less qualitative journals on the market. There are some quality checks you can do to assess the quality of a journal.