Research Guides: Scholarly Communication: Open Access

About Open Access

Auraria Library and Open Access
Auraria Library supports the widest possible dissemination of the scholarly research and intellectual output of the three Auraria campus institutions and thus supports open access in the many ways detailed in this document.

Definition "Open access refers to online research outputs that are free of all restrictions on access (e.g. access tolls) and free of many restrictions on use (e.g. certain copyright and license restrictions). Open access can be applied to all forms of published research output, including peer-reviewed and non peer-reviewed academic journal articles, conference papers, theses, book chapters, and monographs.” Wikipedia

Advantages & Disadvantages

What are the advantages of Open Access?

Equality – free for all
Increased readership
Share knowledge to create knowledge
Increased research impact

What are the disadvantages of Open Access?

Author or institution may need to pay to publish (article processing charge (APC))
May lack quality control
Sustainability
Number of high-quality, fully open access journals varies across disciplines
Difficult to determine legitimate open access journals
May be extra work for the researcher

Article Processing Charges (APCs) Support

Types of Open Access

Gold: Publisher makes all articles and related content open access. Often charge an article processing charge which the author or institution has to pay.
Green: Also known as self-archiving. The author deposits articles in a repository or website controlled by the author.
Hybrid: Mixture of open access and closed access articles. Typically authors, can play a fee to make their article open access.
Bronze: Delayed open access journals. After a certain amount of time, articles are open access.
Diamond / platinum: Open access journals which do not charge article processing charges (APCs). Funding is from external sources.

Find Open Access Journals

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) This link opens in a new window
The DOAJ is an index to open access scientific and scholarly journals that use a quality control system to guarantee the content. All subject areas and languages are covered.
ULRICHSweb Global Serials Directory This link opens in a new window
Use the Advanced Search page to limit your search to Open Access journals in the Key Feature box (click on More Limiters to find the Key Features box).

Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
Primary aim is to increase discoverability of Open Access books.

Resources

Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook (OASIS)
Aims to provide an authoritative ‘sourcebook’ on Open Access, covering the concept, principles, advantages, approaches and means to achieving it.
Open Access Directory
A wiki with a plethora of information about open access.
EmbedOA (Open Access Button)
Enter a URL, DOI, Title or Citation to determine if there is an open access version of an article.
Open Access Directory: Disciplinary Repositories