Open Access (OA) refers to scholarly, research, or other creative material that is freely available online with no barriers to access. While the OA movement is generally focused on journal articles, it increasingly applies to theses, dissertations, monographs, and book chapters, as well.
What are the benefits of open access?
Rapid and broad sharing of knowledge via open access venues promotes innovation, the creation of culture, and economic growth. For example, scientists and researchers who have immediate access to time-sensitive publications may find new treatments for critically ill patients, information to detect or respond quickly to natural disasters, and preemptive solutions to economic crises. Whatever the situation or reason, knowledge that is current, scholarly, and made freely available online, will result in the greatest public benefit.
Scholarship that is less time sensitive will endure to be easily discovered and rediscovered through online tools that continue to increase in sophistication. Moreover, long-term preservation is more likely for digital content than content fixed in media that are susceptible to physical environmental fluctuations (like, paper).
On a personal level, open access publishing exposes your work to a limitless audience. In addition to your peers, there potentially will be new users, both lay and academic, who will discover and experience your work. Your audience, in turn, has the opportunity to provide you with significant feedback, making your research richer and more meaningful.
Green or Gold open access publishing models
For journal publishing, there are generally two paths to open access, green and gold. Under green OA, an article is made openly available at some point after formal publication; under gold OA, an article is published as open access without delay.
Green Open Access self-archiving – the publisher allows authors to self-archive a version of the published work for free public use in their institutional repository, such as Mason Archival Repository Service (MARS; mars.gmu.edu). Learn more about archiving work in MARS…
Gold Open Access publishing – the work is initially published as freely available without access restrictions. There are various business approaches to support this model, including fees for authors to submit to a journal. Learn more about open access publishing…
- Public Library of Science (PLoS) explains how their OA model is sustainable…
- BioMed Central (BMC) explains their article-processing fees…
