1. Open Access: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly
By Tim Bottorff,
Head, Rosen Library
With assistance from Sarah Norris,
Scholarly Communication Librarian, John C. Hitt Library
18 November 2016

2. What is Open Access?
"Open-access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.“ ~ Peter Suber
"OA is a kind of access, not a kind of business model, license, or content." ~ Peter Suber

3. Common OA Pathways Publish in a fully OA journal, such as:
Tourism & Management Studies
Review of Economic Analysis
International Review of Management and Marketing
Publish in a traditional journal that allows you to unlock an OA option (through negotiation or fees)
Publish in a traditional journal & later archive your work in an OA repository, such as:
STARS
ResearchGate
Academia.edu

4. The Good Increases access Increases impact
Shares your work worldwide, without paywalls or other hindrances
Increases impact
Increases your likelihood to be read and cited
Increases your reputation
Good for the institution & academia
OA may help solve the “pricing crisis” for scholarly journals

5. The Bad OA publishing still costs money
Article Processing Charges (APCs)
Some fields are slower to adopt OA
OA journals may have lower metrics than traditional journals
Some restrictions if you self-archive later:
May have to use a pre- or post-print version of your work
May have to wait until an embargo period passes
Sherpa Romeo site can help you navigate the policies of most journals

6. The Ugly
OA also provides an opportunity for… predatory publishers, lower quality journals, and various nefarious practices
Tactics may include:
May provide little or no evidence of real peer review
May list researchers on editorial boards without their consent
May spam researchers with unsolicited s
May surprise researchers with high fees to publish the work
May never actually publish the article

7. Recommendations Trust your gut
Use a checklist, such as Think Check Submit
Check standard sources, such as:
Directory of Open Access Journals
Beall's Scholarly Open Access
UCF Library’s Online Journals lookup site
Google Scholar’s journal metrics
A book in the library titled The Source: A Guide to Academic Journals in Hospitality, Leisure, Tourism, & Travel

8. Removing Articles from Predatory Journals
If your work was published in a predatory journal, you may wish to:
Remove the article from your CV
File a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice, see e.g.: takedown-notice-demystified/
File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC):

9. UCF Librarians
Questions about Open Access, predatory publishers, and other aspects of scholarly communication:
Sarah Norris, Scholarly Communication Librarian
Shane Roopnarine, Rosen Public Services Librarian
Tim Bottorff, Rosen Head Librarian
Questions about STARS (UCF’s digital institutional repository):
Kerri Bottorff, Digital Collections Project Coordinator
Lee Dotson, Digital Initiatives Librarian

10. Additional Sources
UCF Libraries Open Access Guide
UCF Libraries Scholarly Communication department communication/
Open Access Overview by Peter Suber