This is Open Access Week. Just
what is open access and why is it important? Open Access (OA) is scholarly and
scientific literature that is online, digital, free, and free of most copyright
and licensing restrictions. What makes this possible is the consent of the
author or copyright holder and the internet. OA journals are peer reviewed and
the major OA journals in the sciences and scholarly literature insist on peer
review. Open access journals are not free to produce, even if it is less
expensive than producing a traditional print journal. Authors pay an article
processing charge, which some universities have a fund to pay the charge for
their faculty members. OA removes restrictions placed on the use of the author’s
own work. Authors can share their work on their own terms through the use of a
Creative Commons license. There is no charge to the end user to access the
article.
Okay so the articles
are available online free of charge and are peer reviewed, but what does this
mean for students and faculty? First over the past few years, the prices that
university libraries have to pay for subscriptions to electronic journals has
steadily increased. Many of these journals are only sold in bundles with other
journals and can cost several thousands of dollars for a single bundle. The
higher prices have meant that some libraries have to make a decision as to
which journals to keep subscribing too and which ones to drop. Open access
means no subscription fees. Which in turn allows anyone to have access to the journal
and its articles. For faculty it means a wider audience and more discoverability,
which can lead to more collaboration with other researchers in their field.
Students have access to articles that may not have previously been available.
Did you know that any research that is federally funded has to have the research
results made available to the public free of charge?
Tarleton currently produces four open access journals:
The Anthology
Journal of Social
Media in Society
Journal of Effective Schools Project
Texas Journal of Agriculture and Natural Resources
If you would like to know more about Open Access here is a
short video.
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