Open acecc under arbete
- What is open access?
- Why open access?
- Open access and research funders
- Different types of open access
- Copyright in open access
- How do I publish articles with open access?
- How do I publish books with open access?
- Questioned publishers and open access (new page)
What is open access?
Open access, also known as open access, is part of the concept of open science. Open access focuses on making the results of research available to everyone at no cost. This means that everyone has the right to read, download, copy, and distribute the results digitally. However, the author still retains copyright and must be credited upon reuse.
When referring to open access, it primarily pertains to scientific publications such as articles, books, theses, and reports that have undergone peer review.
More information
Royal Library's video on open access
Why open access?
In recent years, the effort to make research results accessible to everyone has been driven by various groups in society, including researchers, politicians, publishers, and funders. An international initiative from research funders is cOAlition S, advocating for immediate open access publication of publicly funded research. At the University West, there has been a rector's decision since 2017 stating that "authors should consider publishing in journals freely accessible to readers in accordance with the recommendations of SUHF (Swedish Association of Higher Education)."
There are many benefits for both society and the author to publish works with open access:
- More readers, broader dissemination, and more citations
- Accessible material can influence decision-makers and reach a wider audience
- Compliance with requirements from funders
(Karolinska Institutet University Library, 2023)
More information
Research Funders and Open Access
Different types of open access
There are different models for publishing works with open access. Below are the different options available:
Diamond/Platinum
- Entails fully open publishing in journals, books, or platforms
- No fees for the author or reader
- The author retains copyright to their work
- Often driven and funded by government agencies or institutions
- This model is not yet widespread
- Journals of this model can be found in the DOAJ database, books in DOAB.
Golden
- Involves fully open publishing in journals or platforms.
- Fee for the author, but not for the reader.
- The majority of publishers and platforms charge a publication fee (Article Processing Charge, APC, or Book Processing Charge, BPC) to the author.
- With this model, the author retains copyright to their work.
- This model is also called "full" or "pure."
- Journals of this model can be found in the DOAJ database, books in DOAB.
Green
- No fees for the author or reader.
- Allows the publisher to provide the author with the opportunity to upload the peer-reviewed and accepted author manuscript, known as post-print, to repositories like DiVA or a website after publishing.
- In most cases, the author retains copyright to their author manuscript.
- Most publishers allow this type of open access, allowing authors to choose either a subscription-based journal or an open-access journal/book with a high APC or BPC that best matches their manuscript while still making the article/book freely accessible.
- Information about a publisher/journal's policies can be found in the SherpaRomeo database.
- Sometimes, the publisher's rules may involve a delay before publication, ranging from six months and upwards. This is called an embargo.
- This model is also called parallel publishing or self-archiving.
Hybrid
- Fee for the author, but not for the reader.
- Involves a combination of both subscription-based and open-access content, known as hybrid journals.
- When an article/book is published open access in a hybrid journal, the author always incurs a publication fee (Article Processing Charge, APC). With this model, the author retains copyright to their work.
- University West has agreements with many hybrid journals, meaning the author does not have to pay APC (or receives a discount). To view our agreements, you can search for journals in the SciFree service. (These agreements do not apply to books).
Copyright and open access
Publishing with open access can involve different levels of openness that affect what the end user can do with the publication. Copyright consists of two parts: economic rights and moral rights. An author always holds the copyright to their text, meaning both moral rights and economic rights. Moral rights cannot be negotiated, but economic rights can be sold or transferred to a publisher or a scientific journal, for example. Publishing agreements determine the conditions for use, and it is important for you as an author to know how your research can be used both before and after publication.
The basic level means that the publication should be readable, without cost, on the web. Often, what can be done in terms of copying, sharing, and reuse is specified using a Creative Commons license (CC license). The use of CC licenses is standard in open-access publishing.
More information
Copyright
Creative Commons (Royal Library)
How do I publish articles with open access?
There are different ways to go about getting your article published with open access. There are various databases and services where you can either search freely to find a journal or explore the possibilities for open-access publication for a journal you have already chosen.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a database that lists high-quality and peer-reviewed open-access journals. In DOAJ, you can search by subject, journal, or ISSN and find journals with diamond or golden open access. In the results list, you can see immediately whether you need to pay a publication fee or not.
BISON is a tool where you can get tips on open-access journals with the help of your title and abstract. The journals are either of the diamond or golden model.
SciFree is a service where you can find which journals the library has agreements with, allowing you to publish with open access at no cost or with a discount. The majority of journals here are hybrid, but there are also some golden ones. Read more about our agreements. To take advantage of them, see what you need to do as an author below:
- One requirement is that you are the corresponding author, employed or a doctoral student at University West, and have provided your email address at University West.
- Check that you have provided the correct affiliation. If necessary, you can add additional organizational affiliations.
- When an article is accepted, you will receive information from the publisher on how to proceed.
- The library verifies that you belong to University West so that the process can continue.
SherpaRomeo is the database where you can see what opportunities you have to parallel-publish, known as green open access. Here, you can see what different journals allow regarding publishing your final, approved, and corrected manuscript, also known as post-print, with open access.
The library keeps track of whether your article allows green open access and contacts you to obtain the final author version for publication in DiVA. Since Google Scholar indexes the content in DiVA, the article appears there with a link to the full text, allowing those without access to the journal to read it.
Note: Remember to save your post-print so you can take advantage of the green open-access opportunity.
More information
How do I publish books with open access?
Publishing books with open access has increased steadily in recent years, and the publishing models are the same as for articles. However, the development has not been as rapid, and there are no agreements for publishing books with open access at University West.
There are several platforms and services for publishing books with open access:
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) is a database where you can search for freely accessible e-books and also see which publishers engage in open-access publishing.
OAPEN is a platform where, similar to DOAB, you can find free e-books and publishers that publish with open access.
Open Book Publishers is a publishing house focusing on humanities and social sciences. The publisher offers a diamond model for open-access publishing, meaning the author is exempt from Book Processing Charges (BPC).
Kriterium is a Swedish platform for the review, publication, and dissemination of high-quality scientific books, also implying that all publications are released with open access.
OA Books Toolkit is a website where there is consolidated information on publishing books with open access.