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:
brief introduction / detailed introduction
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.
Benefits of Open Access
Click on the links below to access literature on the benefits of OA:
Benefits of Open Access for research dissemination
Open Access Impact Bibliography
In the short video below experts from around the world discuss the value and future of OA to science and the larger global community,
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.
Open Access Explained
Watch the video below to learn more about OA and its impact on healthcare (http://www.phdcomics.com/tv/#015).
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 will be shared here as they are discovered:
- The University of Southern California is a supporting member of Biomed Central and thereby provides affiliates a 15% discount to publish in BioMed Central open access journals
Open Access Registries & Directories
Lists and indexes of OA resources.
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Directory of Open Access Journals A 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 BooksA 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 DirectoryWiki maintained by open access community with definitions, lists, videos, and more.
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OpenDOAR - Directory of Open Access RepositoriesA 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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ROARA 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 RepositoriesA 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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Repository66 - Repository MapsThis a visualization of research data repositories from re3data.org. You can use this visualization to find a data repository near you.
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Open Access WebliographyThis 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)Open 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 CentralFree 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 CentralA 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 NetworkProvides 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 DissertationsDatabase of free, open access full-text graduate theses and dissertations published around the world.
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EThOSUK's national thesis service. Contains over 450,000 doctoral theses.
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DART-EuropeA portal to access electronic theses and dissertations from European universities.
Open Access Publishing Resources
The following resources discuss OA publishing models:
Green, Blue, Yellow, White & Gold A brief guide to the open access rainbow.
Income models for Open Access: An overview of current practice
The resources below provide information on how to develop an OA publication or implement OA within your institution:
Avoiding Predatory Publishers
The following resources can be useful in assessing the integrity of OA publications and publishers.
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Beall's List of PublishersBeall's list is no longer available as of 01/2017. This link will send you to the archived version of the list from January 3, 2017.