What do we mean by Open Access? Open Access articles are: Universally accessible via the Internet, without subscription barriers Licensed so as to allow download, redistribution and reuse, in whole or in part, as long as attribution is retained Permanently archived in an internationally recognized repository (e.g. PubMed Central)

How can open access be achieved? Gold Road Publishing in an open access journal –Fully OA journals e.g. BioMed Central, Public Library of Science etc –OA option in traditional journals (now offered by most major publishers) Green Road Self-archiving in a repository Subject repositories –PubMed Central –UK PubMed Central –ArXiV Institutional repositories –DSpace –Eprints –Fedora –Open Repository

OA journals and OA repositories are a great fit together Repositories are vital, but… Not a complete solution in themselves, if dependent on subscription journals, embargo periods etc… OA journals are compatible with full and immediate open access via repositories

About BioMed Central Largest publisher of peer-reviewed open access journals Launched first open access journal in 2000 Now publishes >160 OA titles >20,000 peer reviewed OA articles published All research articles published under Creative Commons licence Costs covered by 'article processing charge' (APC)

BioMed Central’s business model Our journals do not charge subscriptions But, like all journals, they do incur costs Article-processing charge (APC) covers: –Editorial: processing of manuscripts –Technical: Development, maintenance and hosting of online journal system –Production: Formatting and markup of articles, inclusion in indexing services –Customer service for authors/readers Web technology is used to keep costs low

Open access publication charges BioMed Central APC comparison page lists 21 publishers’ open access options Charges vary by an order of magnitude ($500 -$5000) BioMed Central’s charges (~$1500) are towards the lower end For comparison, traditional publishers often charge $3000 or more, in addition to subscription charges /apccomparison

Article-processing charges - who pays? Authors pay out of their individual grant funds Authors pay using “central fund for open access publishing” managed by their institution and supported by funding agencies e.g. Wellcome Trust Institutions prepay on behalf of their authors via BioMed Central membership scheme (Institution gets a discount, authors face no obstacle to choosing OA publication)

Open access publishing does not necessarily mean ‘author-pays’ Institutionally-supported journals, e.g. Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry Chinese Medicine Chiropractic & Osteopathy Filaria Journal International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Journal of Brachial Plexus and Peripheral Nerve Injury Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research Consortium-supported journals (e.g. CERN)

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