What is Open Access?
Open Access (OA) literature is freely available online, and may also be free of copyright and licensing restrictions. Articles free of permission barriers are typically accompanied by a Creative Commons License, which dictates the different alteration and reuse options. The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities provides a more detailed definition of OA.
- Peter Suber, Director of the Harvard Open Access Project, provides an introduction to OA:
- International Open Access Week connects a global audience interested in promoting OA.
- See the Public Access Mandates tab to learn more about government mandates with OA requirements.
- For information on Open Educational Resources (OER) please see the USC Library OER guide.
Watch the videos below to learn more about OA and its impact on healthcare.
Open Access Registries & Directories
Lists and indexes of OA resources.
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Directory of Open Access Journals This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive list of journals that publish only open access content. Some journals will display their table of contents. This is useful for finding open access journals available in a field of interest.
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Directory of Open Access Books This link opens in a new windowA directory of open access books from academic publishers on a wide variety of academic topics. The book list can be searched or browsed to find titles of interest.
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Open Access Directory This link opens in a new windowWiki maintained by open access community with definitions, lists, videos, and more.
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OpenDOAR - Directory of Open Access Repositories This link opens in a new windowA directory of open access repository, you can search for repositories or repository contents. Good for identifying data repositories for your own data or finding raw datasets.
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ROAR This link opens in a new windowA searchable international registry indexing the creation, location and growth of open access institutional repositories and their contents. Good for identifying data repositories for your own data or finding raw datasets.
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re3data - Registry of Research Data Repositories This link opens in a new windowA global registry of research data repositories and contents. This registry can be used to search for a data repository or datasets. Good for identifying data repositories for your own data or finding raw datasets.
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Open Access Webliography This link opens in a new windowThis webliography presents a list of a wide range of electronic, open access resources that are freely available as of April 2005.
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SOCOLARA free searchable database of open access journals, and repositories hosted by the China Educational Publications Import and Export Corporation (CEPIEC).
Open Access Resources
Search the following resources for free full text articles, theses, and dissertations.
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Public Library of Science (PLOS) This link opens in a new windowOpen access publications: PLOS One, PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Pathogens, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Also includes other content such as Collections and Blogs.
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PubMed Central This link opens in a new windowFree digital repository of publicly available full-text scholary journal articles in biomedical and life sciences. Articles are free to read without a subscription.
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BioMed Central This link opens in a new windowA suite of peer-reviewed, open-access journals in all areas of the biological sciences, includes titles such as BMC Biology, BMC Medicine, Malaria and BMC Infectious Disease. Good for finding high-quality, open-access literature on a variety of topics.
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Digital Commons Network This link opens in a new windowProvides access to free, full-text scholarly articles from universities worldwide across all disciplines. Good for finding open access articles.
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Open Access Theses and Dissertations This link opens in a new windowDatabase of free, open access full-text graduate theses and dissertations published around the world.
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EThOS This link opens in a new windowUK's national thesis service. Contains over 450,000 doctoral theses.
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DART-Europe This link opens in a new windowA portal to access electronic theses and dissertations from European universities.
Open Access Repositories
Repositories allow you to upload and share your work with others. They may be institutional or discipline specific.
To get started, the Harvard Open Access Project provides a guide on How to Make Your Own Work Open Access.
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FigShare This link opens in a new windowData output repository. Includes datasets, posters, and presentations across arts and sciences.
Open Access Publishing Resources
How Can I Pay to Publish in an Open Access Journal?
Open Access journals fall into two categories: fee based and no fee journals. In cases of fee based journals either the author, the author's institution or the source of the author's research funding pays to cover the cost of publication.
Researchers are encouraged to consider open access options at the beginning of their projects in order to set aside and ensure funding for eventual publication.
Discounts and funding opportunities that are available to USC affiliates are listed on the Transformative Agreement Guide.
In the health-sciences specifics, USC has an institutional fellowship for BMJ Case Reports that provides USC researchers with a discount. Please contact USC Libraries at medlib@usc.edu for the institutional fellowship code.
Avoiding Predatory Publishers
The following resources can be useful in assessing the integrity of OA publications and publishers.
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Stop Predatory Journals - List of JournalsThis is a list of possibly predatory journals.
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Stop Predatory Journals - List of PublishersThis is a list of publishers that may be engaging in predatory practices.
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Beall's List of Potential Predatory Journals and PublishersThis is an archived version of Beall's list which was discontinued in 2017.
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Cabells Predatory Report Criteria v 1.1The Cabells Predatory Report Review Board uses this criteria to evaluate all journals suspected of deceptive, fraudulent, and/or predatory practices.
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Think Check SubmitProvides an easy-to-use checklist designed to help you identify which journals in your discipline are trustworthy, and will help your research have the maximum impact on your career.
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Ulrichsweb This link opens in a new windowFind bibliographic information about journals, including where they are indexed, ISSN, publisher, subject coverage, and whether or not the journal is peer-reviewed (refereed).
The Publisher's Website Evaluation Tool (see checklist below) is sourced from the following article. See article appendix for additional evaluation tools. Emme Lopez & Christine S. Gaspard. (2020). Predatory publishing and the academic librarian: Developing tools to make decisions. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 39(1), 1-14, https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2020.1693205