Information about Open Access (OA)

What is Open Access?

Open Access (OA) can be defined as providing online access to scientific data,  information and knowledge for end users free of charge, without restrictions and violation of copyright. Open Access journals are peer-reviewed and of high quality. Open Access approach enables to reuse the results of research.

The basic philosophy of Open Access approach is that the research and scientific activities are mostly financed from public sources, and therefore their output should be publicly accessible to all.

Open Access is the output of Open Science (OS). Open Science is a model that enables the availability of scientific research, data and dissemination of information for professionals as well as other users. It includes practices such as making open research available to vast audiences, organizing campaigns for Open Access, encouraging scientists to publish openly and generally facilitating publishing and communication of scientific knowledge.

Advantages of Open Access

Open access provides various advantages for different groups of users:

Authors – faster process of publishing and the possibility of increasing the citation rates.

Readers – unlimited access to and greater accessibility of information. Readers can use free software, e.g. for full-text searching, indexing, creating links, etc.

Teachers and students – OA eliminates fee payment and permissions for the reproduction and distribution of documents.

Libraries – OA approach is budget-friendly and eliminates problems with licenses. 

Universities – OA makes scientific results available, easily accessible and visible, and consequently increases overall prestige of the university.

Publishers and journals – OA draws attention to the publishers’ output and increases interest in publishing.

Grant agencies – publishing scientific results in OA journals may increase the return on investment in research provided by grant agencies, as well as quality of publications funded by grant funds.

Government – OA approach meets legal requirements. Thanks to using public funds, the research results are available to vast audiences.

Citizens – OA method allows citizens to access the results of science that they pay for with their taxes.

Methods of OA publishing

Green path - authors publish full texts of their articles in a publicly accessible repository or on their own website. In the green path, libraries, research institutions and states build and ensure operations of the infrastructure – functionality of repositories. Authors do not have any expenses. Finally, the green OA approach is connected with usage of subject or institutional repositories. More info and publishing  instructions for authors >>>

Diamond path - academic texts (such as monographs, proceedings, journal articles, etc.) are published online, distributed, and preserved without any fees to the reader or author. More info >>>

Golden path – open access is provided by journals in which the content is provided to readers for free, however, authors pay fees for article processing (so-called Article Processing Charge - APC). Besides,in case of a professional monograph, the publisher provides access to the peer-reviewed full text of the book in electronic format. More info and publishing instructions for authors >>>

Several other approaches - hybrid, delayed, short-term, selected and partial - have been introduced by commercial publishers. However, these are mainly selective open content, with or without adequate Open Access permissions.  

Open Access Licenses

Creative Commons (CC, some rights reserved) is a liberal form of copyright protection that is used in the open access publishing environment.

CC offers different licensing schemes. In some of them, the copyright holders offer some rights to the public to use their work, while other rights are reserved. CC licenses are composed of a combination of several basic features that determine which rights may the copyright holders retain and which they give up.

The four basic features used by Creative Commons are:

Attribution (CC BY) - allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon a work, even for commercial purposes, as long as they give appropriate credit to the original creator.

Attribution Share Alike (CC BY-SA) - this license element allows the reproduction, display and distribution of the work, even in modified form, while maintaining the original license.

Attribution no Derivatives (CC BY-ND) - allows others to reuse a work, including for commercial purposes, as long as they provide proper attribution to the creator. However, they cannot modify, remix, or create derivative works based on the original.

Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC) - this license element allows the reproduction, display and distribution of the work, however, only if the work will be used for non-commercial purposes.

The combination of the above mentioned four basic features creates other types of Creative Commons licenses. More info >>>