About Open Access
Open Access is a way of making research outputs more widely read, cited and used.
The University of Edinburgh supports its staff in making their research Open Access. There are two means of making material available through Open Access: publish in an Open Access Journal, or deposit a digital duplicate of the article, conference paper or book chapter in an online Open Access archive, such as the Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA).
Recent studies have begun to show that open access increases research impact. Various studies have looked at the open access citation advantage:
Open Access Archives (Green OA)
Open access digital archives (otherwise known as repositories) are online web sites where authors or their designated intermediates deposit scholarly publications for anyone to read. They are a mechanism for managing and storing digital content.
Repositories can be subject or institutional in their focus. Putting content into an institutional repository enables staff and institutions to manage and preserve it, and therefore derive maximum value from it. Repositories use open standards to ensure that the content they contain is accessible in that it can be searched and retrieved for later use.
More information about how you can use UoE repositories:
Open Access Journals (Gold OA)
Open Access Journals make their articles available for free through charging for the publication services before publication, rather than after publication through subscriptions. Open Access publication charges can be often included within the costs of research funding, so the money for access comes through the research funder, rather than through the library budget.
Of course, the initial source of the money is often the same (from government funding), but the economics of this model means that the overall cost should be lower. Peer-review is unaffected and is carried out in the same way. There are a growing number of Open Access Journals, with a journal available in most disciplines. A list of the ones currently available is provided by the Directory of Open Access Journals
Some publishers like Elsevier, OUP, Blackwell, Springer and the Royal Society are now experimenting with hybrid journals, where the subscription version is still sold, but for a supplement - typically around £1500 (+VAT) each - an article can then be made freely available. The Wellcome Trust will provide money to cover these supplementary costs for the research articles it has funded. The UK Funding Councils see this supplementary cost as being included within the research grant.
More information on open access publishing:
If you have any questions about Open Access, or want to learn how you can participate please contact:
This article was published on May 27, 2013