Open Access movement
Open Access movement
Open Access refers to universal access to scientific publications, educational materials, research data and the results of publicly funded research – without fees, logins or other legal or technical restrictions, and without the need to install additional, paid software.
Advantages of Open Access
- Provides free and unlimited access to scientific content, increasing its reach and visibility.
- Enables institutions and individuals with limited resources, especially in developing countries, to benefit from research results.
- Accelerates the exchange of information between researchers, supporting innovation and scientific development.
- Guarantees access to publicly funded research results for the entire society.
- Supports education and the popularisation of science by enabling the free use of publications also outside the academic community.
- Facilitates the evaluation and verification of research, which promotes its reliability and quality.
Types of Open Access
Open access to scientific publications can be implemented in various models, characterised by different methods of sharing materials, sources of funding and rules of use. There are several open access models, the two most popular being gold and green.
| GOLD Open Access | GREEN Open Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Version made available | Version of Record | depending on the publisher's policy: preprint, postprint or Version of Record |
| Place of publication | on the publisher’s website | depending on the publisher's policy: repository and other online platforms |
| Publication costs | Article Processing Charges (APC) covered by the author, institution or grant provider | no publication costs |
| Access to content | immediate, unrestricted for all | depending on the publisher's policy: delayed (6–12 month embargo) or immediate after self-archiving of the preprint or postprint |
Publishing policies can be checked on publishers' websites or using Jisc's Open Policy Finder (formerly SHERPA/RoMEO), which collects information about authors' rights to share publications and the terms and conditions of the publishing process, including embargo periods.
Tips
If you want your publication to be available in the Open Access model:
- publish in peer-reviewed open or hybrid journals, e.g. in titles included in the Directory of Open Access Journals;
- share a copy of your work (either a preprint or postprint, depending on the publisher's policy) in the WUT Base of Knowledge – see the tab Submit your work to WUT Base of Knowledge;
- take advantage of national, consortium or university funding programmes described in the tab Open Access – funding.
Recommended links
Tools supporting open science
- Journal Checker Tool – a tool for testing the compliance of a selected journal with the requirements of the Open Access Policy of the National Science Centre (NCN).
- License Chooser – a tool for selecting a Creative Commons licence for a selected scientific work.
- OA.Finder – a tool supporting the selection of an appropriate journal for open access publication, taking into account the scientific discipline, openness policy and other editorial criteria (developed by Bielefeld University Library, Bielefeld, Germany).
- Pomocnik prawny – (Legal Assistant) – a tool that provides basic knowledge about the legal aspects of open access (Polish version).
- Think.Check.Attend – a tool allowing to identify trusted conferences and their organisers.
- Think.Check.Submit – a tool allowing to identify trusted journals and publishers.
Repositories of preprints and scientific publications
- WUT Base of Knowledge – a repository of Warsaw University of Technology, which enables the collection, sharing and searching of scientific works by students, doctoral students and university staff.
- arXiv – a repository enabling scientists to share preprints in fields such as physics, mathematics and computer science free of charge.
- EarthArXiv – a repository enabling scientists to share preprints in the field of Earth and environmental sciences free of charge.
- engrXiv – a repository enabling scientists to share preprints in the field of engineering and related fields free of charge.
- bioRxiv – a repository enabling scientists to share preprints in the field of biological sciences free of charge.
- ChemRxiv – a repository enabling scientists to share preprints in the field of chemistry and related sciences free of charge.
Glossary
C
- Creative Commons licence
- a standard open licence that allows the author to specify the terms of use of their work, such as the obligation to acknowledge authorship, a ban on commercial use, a ban on modification, or the obligation to make derivative works available under the same licence.
D
- Data Management Plan (DMP)
- a document describing the rules for managing research data during and after the completion of scientific research within the project, in particular specifying the type of research data and the rules for its archiving and use.
F
- FAIR principles
- principles defining standards for the preparation, storage and sharing of research data, i.e. Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability.
M
- metadata
- structured information describing the deposited and shared data set, enabling its search and identification.
O
- open licence
- a type of licence that allows the use of a work under specific conditions, including copying, distribution, modification and further sharing, while respecting the copyright of the creator.
P
- postprint (Author Accepted Manuscript, AAM)
- a version of a scientific article that has been accepted for publication after the review process has been completed, but does not yet contain the graphic identification and editorial format specified for a given journal.
- preprint (Author’s Original Manuscript, AOM)
- a version of a scientific article prior to the review process and editorial work, most often a manuscript sent to a journal.
- publication
- a work which, with the author's permission, has been reproduced and made available to the public. It may be in printed or electronic form. Publications include, in particular: articles in scientific journals, chapters in conference proceedings, scientific monographs and chapters in monographs.
R
- repository
- an online database where publications, research data and other information related to scientific activity can be deposited, stored and shared.
- research data
- data that has been collected, generated or observed during a research process aimed at obtaining scientific results.
V
- Version of Record (VoR)
- the version of a publication made available on the publisher's website, containing the graphic identification and editorial format specified for a given journal.