1 Open Access Explained

Open access (OA) means that materials are made freely available to the general public. OA materials can typically be found online, downloaded, read, searched, and/or mined by automated tools.

Open access publishers can, and often do, follow the same practices as traditional scholarly publishers including peer review, copy editing and quality assurance. The primary difference is that OA publishers do not charge readers to access their material.

Why has open access emerged in academic publishing? Access to research is an equity issue. Researchers at underfunded institutions cannot participate in scholarly discourse without access to relevant research. Given the rapid rise in journal costs over the past 30+ years, a growing number of institutions and individuals fall into this underfunded category. In general, proponents of open access argue that research—particularly research funded by the public—should be available to the public at no charge.

Open access material is generally distributed according to one of several business models. These include:

• Gold OA: Publications that make content freely available from the start. These publications may or may not charge authors a processing fee to support administrative work.
• Green OA: Venues that archive journal articles, datasets, and other research materials after that material has already been published elsewhere.
• Hybrid OA: Traditional, subscription-based journals that allow authors to open up access to materials by paying an article processing charge (APC).
• Diamond OA: Venues that make content freely available at point of publication but do not profit by charging either the reader or the author of scholarly content.