What is open Access?
According to the definition by SPARC, open access is "free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment ". A publication is considered “open access” when anyone can freely read, download, copy, share, print, or search its content, and use it for educational or other lawful purposes, without facing financial, legal, or technical restrictions.
Why open Access?
- Faster Dissemination: OA allows research findings to be shared and discovered more quickly, accelerating scientific progress and innovation.
- Global Collaboration: By removing access barriers, OA allows greater collaboration among researchers worldwide, regardless of their institution’s resources.
- Public Engagement: OA enables the general public, policymakers, and practitioners to access and benefit from the latest research, supporting informed decision-making and societal advancement.
- Increased Visibility: OA publications are more easily found through search engines, increasing the visibility and impact of authors’ work.
- Supports Lifelong Learning: OA resources are valuable for educators, students, and independent learners who may not have institutional access to subscription-based materials.
Types of publication and open access
Being familiar with the terminology used throughout the OA publishing stages can help researchers and students make informed decisions about sharing and citing academic work.
Article Processing Charge (APC)
An Article Processing Charge (APC) is a fee paid to the publisher to make your article available Open Access. It covers publication costs such as peer review management, editing, and hosting.
Note: HBKU authors are eligible for APC funding through Qatar National Library (QNL) or internal sources.
Affiliation
An author’s affiliation indicates the institution they are currently associated with, which may or may not be where the research was conducted. For eligibility in certain publisher agreements, including Open Access funds, authors must be affiliated with an institution at the time of submission or acceptance.
Corresponding Author
The author responsible for managing the submission, peer review, and communication with the publisher. This person usually signs copyright or license agreements and is often the one eligible to apply for APC funding.
Pre-print
Also known as a pre-submission, this is the version of a manuscript shared publicly before undergoing formal peer review. Pre-prints are often posted on open-access repositories to gather feedback from the academic community and improve the manuscript prior to journal submission.
Check journal policies: Some journals may not accept submissions that have been posted as pre-prints.
Post-print
This is the version of the manuscript that has been revised following peer review and accepted for publication. It is sometimes called the Accepted Author Manuscript (AAM) or Author Manuscript Online (AMO)
Understand copyright agreements: Many publishers allow sharing post-prints under specific conditions (e.g., embargo periods, repository use).
Version of Record (VoR)
This is the final, published version of the article. It includes all editorial enhancements such as copyediting, layout formatting, and metadata tagging performed by the publisher. The VoR is the version typically cited in academic work and indexed in databases.
Embargo Period
An embargo period is the time delay set by some publishers before a post-print can be made publicly available in an institutional repository. Typical embargoes range from 6 to 24 months, depending on the journal and discipline.
Predatory Journals
Predatory journals are unethical publishers that charge APCs without providing genuine peer review or editorial services. They often use misleading metrics and lack transparency.
In the traditional academic publishing model, authors often transfer copyright ownership to the publisher upon publication. This will depend on the publishing agreement author sign with the publisher. This transfer typically restricts the author's ability to reuse, share, or distribute their own work without obtaining permission from the publisher.
Creative Commons Licence
Creative Commons (CC) licences work alongside copyright law, enabling authors to define how others may use their work. By applying a CC licence, authors can facilitate broader and more flexible reuse of their publications.
The most common licenses you will see with major publishers are:
CC BY : This allows others to share, adapt, and build upon your work, even for commercial use, as long as they credit you as the original creator. It’s the most flexible licence, recommended for maximum visibility and reuse.
Key restriction:
- Attribution (BY): Users must give proper credit to the author.
CC BY-NC: The CC BY-NC licence allows others to remix, adapt, and build upon your work for non-commercial purposes only, as long as they credit you as the original creator.
Key restrictions:
- BY (Attribution): Credit must be given
- NC (NonCommercial): No commercial use allowed
- Derivative works don’t need to use the same licence
CC BY-NC-ND: The CC BY-NC-ND licence is the most restrictive of the Creative Commons licences. It allows others to copy and share your work in its original form and for non-commercial purposes only, provided they credit you as the creator.
Key restrictions:
- No modifications or adaptations allowed
- No commercial use permitted
- Attribution is required
Gold Open Access
The final published version of the article is freely and permanently available to everyone immediately upon publication.
- No subscription fees apply to any part of the journal.
- Authors typically pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) after acceptance.
- Also known as Pure Gold Open Access.
Hybrid Open Access
Articles are published in subscription-based journals, but authors can choose to make their individual article open access.
- The final version is freely available immediately after publication.
- Subscription fees still apply to other articles in the journal.
- Authors pay an APC to make their article open access.
Green Open Access
Authors deposit a version of their manuscript in an open access repository, making it freely available.
- The version allowed depends on publisher or funder policies (e.g., accepted manuscript or final version).
- Often subject to an embargo period (commonly 12 months) set by the publisher.
- No APCs are charged.