Defining Open Access

Open access publishing refers to a “set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers” (Open access, Wikipedia). The Open Access movement initially centered around removing the barriers to peer-reviewed, scholarly journals in response to the rising cost of publishing and accessing research. However, Open Access materials can exist in many formats, including journals, monographs, blog posts, digital projects, and open educational resources. The open access landscape continues to carry momentum into the future of scholarly publishing, as the field becomes more focused on the human right to access knowledge and information.

As we move towards barrier-free scholarly publications, we recognize that there are still many journals and publishers who require an access or publication fee. Therefore, Texas State University Libraries pays for subscriptions to many major journals, publishers, and databases in order to provide you with the best and most thorough research materials, all of which you can find by searching on the library website. Click the “I” icons on the image below to learn more about navigating through these resources.

We also have agreements with three major publishers to waive fees for our researchers to publish in select journals. These publishers are Wiley, Cambridge University Press, and Elsevier. Please visit this FAQ sheet for more information.

Types of Open Access Publishing

• Green OA publishing refers to the self-archiving of published or pre-publication works for free public use. Authors provide access to preprints or post-prints (with publisher permission) in an institutional or disciplinary archive such as University Scholarship.
• Gold OA publishing refers to works published in an open access journal and accessed via the journal or publisher’s website. Examples of Gold OA include PLOS (Public Library of Science) and BioMed Central.
• Hybrid OA offer authors the option of making their articles open access, for a fee. Journals that offer hybrid OA are still fundamentally subscription journals with an open access option for individual articles. They are not true open access journals, despite publishers’ use of the term “gold open access” to describe this arrangement.
• Diamond OA publishing describes journals that are completely free to publish and to read. The cost of maintaining and publishing the journal is usually borne by the organization that sponsors the journal. Diamond OA status has no impact on the journal’s peer review process. By making articles completely free to both publish and to read, Diamond OA best approaches the goals of democratizing and widely distributing academic scholarship.
• Bronze OA publishing describes articles that are free to read on a publisher’s homepage, but without clarity on the specific licenses covering an article. Bronze OA articles may be free to read due to a temporary publisher marketing campaign, for example.

Source: Cornell University, Open Access Publishing: What is Open Access?

Pros and Cons to Open Access Publishing

Pros

• Anyone can read your work for free. You can read other open access work for free. There are no institutional, corporate, or subscription-based barriers limiting your audience.
• Your work is still discoverable by search engines. Search engines index open access work.
• You keep your copyright, which means you can post your work anywhere and share it with anyone.

 Cons

• Some journals charge Article Processing Charges, which can be thousands of dollars per article.
• Predatory journals use the open access model to prey on authors. It is important that you verify that your open access publisher is legitimate before submission. Visit the Predatory Journals section of the Where to Publish Your Research guide for more information.
• Tenure and promotion committees often favor journals published under the traditional subscription model.
• People erroneously believe open access publications do not receive peer review.

Organizational Support

The digital publishing office at Texas State University can help you at every level of the research process: planning, writing, publishing, and marketing your work.

We offer a variety of services, including:

• Open access journal publishing using Open Journal Systems
• Digital exhibit curation using Omeka Classic
• Open education resource (OER) publishing using Pressbooks
• Researcher profile consultations
• Application for ISSN
• DOI minting through Crossref
• Visibility and impact consultations for your work

We are always interested to help on any publishing projects and would love to hear project proposals.