OPEN ACCESS
Defining Open Access (OA)
The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) defines Open Access as the practice of making research and scholarly literature freely accessible on the internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute and print.
OA is a relatively new form of scholarly communication, many OA journals now comply with strict peer-reviewing processes and maintain high publishing standards. For more information, check out leading authority of Harvard's OA Project Peter Suber and his writings on Open Access.
Benefits of Open Access
Open Access makes scholarly research permanently available online without restrictions, benefiting researchers, librarians, scholarly societies, publishers, and the general public. Open Access helps you:
► Promote Open Access Citation Advantage OACA
► Meet RGC funding requirements
► Foster partnership/collaboration
► Facilitate educational use & engagement
Open Access Citation Advantage (OACA)
Definitive research has confirmed that there are benefits to making your work OA, known as OACA, the Open Access Citation Advantage.
Based on a sample size of 1.5 million Scopus-indexed articles, a 2014 study by ScienceMetrix.org has reported that overall, OA papers were cited 26% times more than non-OA papers. OACA for institutional repositories even went up to 53%, whereas Gold Journal OA had a 39% advantage.
46 out of 70 studies conducted until 2015 have also confirmed the benefits of OACA, according to a summary of studies commissioned by SPARC Europe.
3 Kinds of Open Access
Depositing your work at HKBU's Institutional Repository is green OA. Research has confirmed that Open Access Citation Advantage (OACA) for Green OA could go up to 53%, according to sciencemetrix.org.
Gold OA means publishing in OA journals. This may incur an Article Processing Charge (APC) but your work will be on publisher's website with no embargoes, and readers gain free access to your research.
Hybrid OA allows you to publish in subscription journals but readers still get free access to your article. There may be a high Article Processing Charge (APC) but your work will be on publisher's website.
Open Access has been gathering force in many parts of the world and it continues to trigger impactful changes to the global research information landscape. Here we bring you the latest news about OA developments around the world:
Science Europe
Launched in July 2018, Plan S consists of 10 principles initiated by 13 European research funders and supported by the European Commission and the European Research Council. It is a commitment to make full and immediate Open Access to research publications in Europe, to be fully implemented by 1 Jan, 2020.
University of California
Declaration of Rights and Principles to transform Scholarly Communication
Triggered by constantly sky-rocketing journal license fees and unfruitful negotiations with commercial publishers, University of California announced in Apr 2018 a declaration of 18 principles with open access as the overarching direction. The declaration aims to accelerate UC's effort to make research and scholarship as freely and widely available as possible.
Want to harness the POWER OF OPENNESS?
Visit the SPARC (Scholarly Publishing of Academic Resources Coalition) website to find out more about Open Access, Open Education and Open Data.
Thinking of maximizing your impact?
Inspire yourself with these Impact Stories about how other researchers achieve impact via Open Access.
Checkout the
Open Access Toolkit!
OA is now a global trend. Many universities, research institutions and funding bodies have introduced mandates or policies requiring faculty and researchers to make their scholarly outputs open access.
4 helpful resources to check out:
DOAJ | Directory of Open Access Journals
Helps you find high quality OA and peer-reviewed journals
Sherpa RoMEO | Allows you to check OA journal copyright policies and author rights
Open DOAR | Directory of Open Access Repositories
Provides you with a listing of quality-assured OA repositories
OASPA | Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association
Helps you confirm which publishers have responsible practice and are ethical
Gain Visibility & Impact with
Open Access (OA)
Watch this 1-min video from Springer Nature to find out how OA enhance visibility and impact.