Open Access and Open Educational Resources (OER)
What is open access? Nick Shockey (SPARC - Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and Jonathan Eisen (UC Davis) take us through the world of open access publishing and explain just what it's all about. (from PhD Comics)
This guidebook by the Authors Alliance provides an accessible, comprehensive overview of OA.
Open Access by Peter Suber
You can freely download (it's open access!) this publication for a solid overview of open access literature, which Suber defines as "digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions." (See also http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm)
SPARC: Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
"Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment. Open Access ensures that anyone can access and use these results—to turn ideas into industries and breakthroughs into better lives." USD is a proud member of SPARC.
Budapest Open Access Initiative
The BOAI first defined open access in 2002: "By "open access" to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited." The BOAI includes two primary strategy recommendations for achieving OA: self-archiving by authors (in OA repositories) and supporting OA journals.
Where can I find open access articles, journals, and other materials?
There are many places where you can find and use open access resources. Here is a selection; for additional resources, please contact Amanda Makula, Digital Initiatives Librarian.
How can I assess the quality of an open access journal?
Boston College University Libraries has assembled an evaluation checklist of useful criteria.
What is a fully open access journal?
A fully open access journal is one in which all articles are published open access. There are no APCs to pay.
Does open access mean that an article hasn't undergone peer review?
No. Open access is independent of peer review. Many open access journals include peer review in their editorial process.
How can I make my work openly accessible?
There are different avenues to open access.
To discover open access journals in which to publish, browse the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). You can also consult Ulrich's Periodical Directory and Journal Citation Reports, electronic resources available via Copley Library.
What are predatory publishers?
Predatory publishers and predatory journals are a fraudulent operation; they charge authors fees for services they don't deliver, such as peer review. Check out this blog post for a discussion of predatory publishers and how to protect yourself as an author.
What is an embargo?
An embargo is a period of time when access to a publication is restricted. Some publishers specify an embargo period, such as 12 or 18 months, before allowing an article to be made available in an open access institutional repository. SHERPA/RoMEO includes information about publishers' embargoes.