Open Access 101: What is open access and how is it changing scholarship? Prepared by Andrew Wesolek, Scholarly Communication Librarian Open Access Week, 2012

What is Open Access?What is Open Access? Scholarly material that is available online free of price restrictions and most copyright restrictions A solution to a problematic scholarly communication system A foundation for new types of research and scholarship

Scholarly Communication:Scholarly Communication:  Scholarly Communication describes the system by which researchers share the results of their research with colleagues. Started in 1665 with the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.

The System:The System: Author writes an article and submits it to a journal Author writes an article and submits it to a journal Experts in the field evaluate the author’s work Experts in the field evaluate the author’s work Journal publishes the work colleague

This system worked smoothly for several hundred years, but…  Over the last several decades, the prices of scholarly journals have skyrocketed.  The result: access problems “The Deeper problem is that we donate time, labor, and public money to create new knowledge and then hand control over the results to businesses that believe, correctly or incorrectly, that their revenue and survival depend on limiting access.” -Peter Suber

The System:The System: Author writes an article and submits it to a journal Experts in the field evaluate the author’s work Journal publishes the work colleague

It doesn’t have to be this way!  Digital publication allows us to reduce costs  Open access removes price barriers between an author’s work and his or her readers

Two Strategies:Two Strategies: Author self archiving in an institutional or funder repository, personal website, or some other freely accessible website Authors publish in fully open-access journals. These journals make ALL of their published articles freely and immediately available on their websites

Both strategies help authors and researchers  Researchers benefit from the elimination of access barriers to the research they need  Authors who publish in OA journals or self-archive benefit from increased impact and visibility  The evidence continues to mount rapidly:

Open Access is NOTOpen Access is NOT  OA is NOT an attempt to circumvent peer review  OA is NOT an attempt to eliminate royalties for authors  OA is NOT an attempt to reduce author’s rights over their works  OA publishing is NOT vanity publishing

How do I make my work OA? 1.Contact edu before signing a publication agreement. Or consult SHERPA/RoMEO edu SHERPA/RoMEO 2.Deposit in the Digital Commons 1.Contact 2.Or, find a Gold OA journal in your field 3.If the journal charges page fees, don’t worry—contact us! The Library may be able to help

Published Version Publishers formatting/Branding Journal information and pagination

Author’s Version

Digital Commons Bibliographic Record

USU Policy 535USU Policy 535 Establishes a nonexclusive license between individual researchers and USU prior to those researchers entering into other publication agreements, thus protecting the rights of our researchers to their scholarly articles. Scholarly Articles: Articles that describe the fruits of a scholar’s research that he/she gives to the world for the sake of inquiry and knowledge without the expectation of payment For more information:

This policy is a tool to help our researchers negotiate our publishing contracts And that means…And that means… This policy improves access to our researchers’ works, and thus increases their impact This policy reflects our commitment to the values of a land grant institution

USU Libraries also supports gold OA  Our program to underwrite the journal processing fees for authors who choose to publish in fully OA journals ensures that researchers will not have to opt for closed access due solely to economic considerations  More information:

What does OA mean for the future?  We can’t know specifics—only the potential  Increased access  Increased collaboration  Faster communication  New types of research  Open access ensures that we have the raw materials available for future scholarship

Resources  Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition  How Open is it? How Open is it?  Open Access Overview Open Access Overview  Open Access Directory Open Access Directory  Open Access Now Open Access Now  Directory of Open Access Journals Directory of Open Access Journals  Hathi Trust Hathi Trust  SHERPA/RoMEO SHERPA/RoMEO And of course me: