Why publish open access?
For several decades, the scientific community has been facing more and more disproportionate cost increases from many scholarly journals. The reasons for this so-called “serial crisis” are complex, but an essential factor is the quasi-monopoly of several publishers. Scientists, working in the environment of financially secure research institutes, often do not face the problem directly. However the visibility, re-use and impact of their scientific research suffer from the limitation of access by pay-walls. Through this lens, it is clear that open access to research results should be enforced.
There are various ways to provide open access to research online. Some scientists already make their publications accessible on their private web pages. This is a good first step. Several additional strategies offer a remedy for restricted access:
Gold open access publishing
This is when the journal you publish in makes digital content freely available immediately upon publication. This can be done in two ways:
- Full OA, which means that all of its articles are available online.
- Hybrid OA, which means that some articles are made available while others are not. Open access journals generally publish your work under a copyright licence, rather than an assignment of copyright.
Publishing in an open access journal?
For a research publication, the most certain strategy for making work openly accessible is to publish in a peer-reviewed open access journal. An increasing number of initiatives like the Public Library of Science (PLoS) offer a system of charge-free access to publications and open licenses of content. Emerging costs have to be paid once by the author or, in most cases, by the author's employer. This so-called “gold open access” in return guarantees unlimited online access from anywhere to the original publication.
How to publish in an open access journal?
If you decide to publish in an open access journal, you have to find a suitable journal for your paper. To do so, visit the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) where nearly 10,000 journals for all kinds of subjects are listed and described. Some criteria will be essential for finding the right journal for your paper. One of the major issues scientists face is the impact factor of journals. Since open access journals usually do not look back on a long tradition, they often struggle to be accepted in the scientific community. However, studies are showing that, for instance, journals indexed in Web of Science or Scopus may approach the same scientific impact and quality as subscription-based journals. A further question concerns licenses: Some open access journals will act more liberally and use a CC-BY license, which means that it is possible to share, remix, and commercially use the publication. Some publishers and journals tend to employ more restrictive open licenses. A CC-BY-NC license still allows the public community to share and remix the work, but commercial use is prohibited. A CC-BY-NC-ND license will not let you alter, transform or build upon the work, but it's still free to share the publication. Furthermore, there are journals offering unlimited open access without open licenses. An essential criterion for publishing open access is the financing of the publication. Open access usually does not mean free of charge as publishing still generates costs. Some peer-reviewed journals are subsidized, and some will charge publication fees. But article processing charges (APCs) do not automatically mean that authors have to pay out of their own pocket. Funders often share publication costs; this may also be the case at IIASA. On the DOAJ website, you will receive information concerning licenses and publication costs of all open access journals. If you find a suitable journal for your needs, you can submit a manuscript in the same way as you would to a conventional journal. For further questions on publishing in open access journals, please contact the IIASA Library.
Green open access publishing
This is when you continue to publish in traditional subscription-based journals, however the publisher allows you to deposit (self-archive) a digital copy of the article manuscript online. You will usually be allowed to deposit the author’s final manuscript in either a subject-based or institutional repository (e.g. IIASA's Publications Repository PURE), or by posting the article to your personal website.
Archiving in a Repository?
Even if an article first appears in a journal or conference following the classic subscription model, there is - in most cases - still a chance to make a copy of it freely available. For this reason, different repositories for scientific works have been established over the years. Subject repositories, on the one hand, cover certain research areas, e.g. arXiv in the field of physics and mathematics. On the other hand, IIASA collects its researchers' publications in an institutional repository. The use of one does not preclude the use of the other. Rather, using both increases visibility. Conventional publishers limit the republishing of works: however, preprints, postprints, working papers or technical reports are still often free of these restrictions. Even the original works can often be uploaded to a repository after a period of time, as the last submitted version. This depends on the policy of the publisher and the journal.
How to archive in a repository?
If you are planning to publish your paper in a conventional journal without open access, you often still have the chance to place the results of your research in a repository. This way, your work gains visibility, becomes reachable for everybody with online access, and promotes re-use and citation. Repositories make use of the fact that while publishers employing the classic subscription model restrict the spread of articles published in their journals, they often still allow making pre-prints, post-prints, working papers, or technical reports accessible. For some journals, it is also possible to upload the last submitted version of a paper after a period of time. To find out more about permissions normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement, visit SHERPA /RoMEO. Here you can search for your publishing journal and your rights to archive your pre-print, post-print, embargo times, etc. There are two main sorts of repositories that you can choose between: subject repositories and institutional repositories. Subject repositories specialize in the dissemination of specific fields of science. An example of such an extensive subject repository is arXiv.org, holding more than 900,000 e-prints mainly in physics, mathematics, computer science, and quantitative biology. Several scientists at IST Austria have already uploaded numerous pre- or post-prints onto one of the platforms. If you are still looking for an appropriate subject repository, have a look at OpenDOAR, an authoritative directory of quality-controlled academic open access repositories. Institutional repositories have been established to provide open access to institutional research output and to enhance the visibility of an institution's scholarly research. More and more universities and research institutes are following the idea of storing and preserving their research results, independent of restrictions by publishers. IST Austria also offers reliable archiving for its scientists. Please visit our IIASA Publications Repository (IIASA PURE). If you are planing to make use of IIASA PURE, or if you need help in finding a suitable subject repository, please feel free to contact IIASA Library.