Open Access: Home

What is Open Access? Check out the video for an introduction.

According to Peter Suber's Open Access, there are two points to understand Open Access (OA).

• "The basic idea of Open Access (OA) is simple: Make research literature available online without price barriers and without most permission barriers."
• Referring specifically to scholarly output in digital format being feely accessible to the public via the Internet, Suber again illustrates the two points: "OA literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions."

       In general, the OA movement is in response to the increase of information access barriers. These barriers are largely tied to the cost of journal and database subscriptions, as it pertains to the growing inconsistency between cost and funding. Not only is this a central driving force behind OA’s efforts to reach larger academic audiences and improve scholarly communication, but it is matter of fact that library funding cannot keep pace with subscription cost increases, which would otherwise ultimately negatively impact students, researchers, institutions, and the public at large.

Open Access is a subset of Open Science, a larger initiative to increase transparency and availability of scholarly output. The graphic below is from Open and Universal Science (OPUS), the EU-funded project that coordinates research institutions to develop a system that incentivizes and rewards researchers to practice open science.

The image outlines eight facets of Open Science:

• Open Access
• Open Research Data
• Open Research Software
• Open Methods
• Open Evaluation
• Open Educational Resources
• Citizen Science
• Open Infrastructure

Some journals reward authors with badges for practicing in Open Science.

When it comes to Open Evaluation, some publications are practicing Open Peer Review and organizations like the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) support reform. 

The Center For Open Science's Open Science Framework (OSF) is a free, public platform that supports Open Research Data and allows users to manage their research and collaborate.

Librarians can help you learn to make the most of the information resources, tools, and services of Murphy Library and beyond!

Weekdays & Sunday afternoons (fall/spring):

• Visit us at the research help desk (1st floor)
• Call us at 608.785.8508
• Web Chat with us

Any time (year-round):

• Email us -- we'll email you back asap
• Schedule an appointment (in-person or online)

Local history and/or archives research? Special Collections / Area Research Center specialists are available!

• Email us at specoll@uwlax.edu
• Call us at 608.785.8511

Gold OA: OA through journals regardless of the journal's business model

Green OA: OA delivered by repositories

Gratis OA: Access is free of charge, but not necessarily free of copyright and licensing. It moves price barriers, but not permission barriers. Users still need to seek permission to exceed fair use

Libre OA: Free of charge and also free of some copyright and licensing restrictions

Repository: a repository is an online database of OA works