What is Open Access?
Open Access means that the resource is freely available for viewing. There is a continuum of open access levels ranging from purcase only access to completely free and open no barrier publishing. Many publications that are subscription only may have an open-access option for some works. Open access is not related to the quality of the material or the peer-review status of the publication.
Types of Open Access
Green OA - refers to a level of open access where the author may self-archive published or pre-published works for free public use including in an institutional or disciplinary archive (dependent on publisher contracts).
Gold OA - refers to a level of open access where the work is published in an entirely open access journal.
Hybrid OA - refers to a journal that uses multiple economic models for publication including individual author fees to make their work open-access.
Open Access Materials
Some open access materials can be found indexed in library owned databases. The following resources are all open-access.
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arXivA pre-print open access archive sponsored by Cornell University in the fields of Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance and Statistics.
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Social Science Research Network (SSRN)SSRN is an interdisciplinary open-access repository for pre-prints and refereed articles in the social sciences and humanities.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)A directory of peer-reviewed non-predatory full open access journals in all disciplines.
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OpenDoarAn authoritative directory of academic open access repositories in all disciplines.
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Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)Digitized collections from libraries, archives, and museums including art, books, manuscripts, etc.
Additional Resources
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Jeffrey Bealle's list of Predatory PublishersA list maintained by a University of Colorado Denver librarian tracking predatory journals. Just one method of determining a legitimate journal and should be used in combination with other methods.
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Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)Membership to this association is vetted and can indicate publisher quality and ethics.
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Sherpa/Juliet Researcher's Funders Open Access PoliciesSearchable database on funders policies regarding open access and data archiving. International in scope.