The term ‘open access’ is used for describing a category of academic journals that allow their content to be accessed by all free of charge, whereas the traditional model of journal publishing is based on offering such access only to those who subscribe to the journal in question. The subscription may be direct or, in the case of journals published by professional societies, indirect, in the form of membership dues. In that case, members of a society get the journal as part of the benefits to members of that society.
What is Open Access Publishing?
Types of Open Access Publishing
Frequently Asked Questions on Open Access
What is Open Access Publishing?
A brief background to open-access publishing is offered here before explaining the concept in a bit more detail. Scholarly publishing is unique in that the publisher (‘manufacturer’) of a journal not only gets the raw materials for free (authors who contribute scholarly articles or research papers to journals are not paid whereas those who contribute articles or stories to magazines are) but part of the processing of that raw material is also done without charge—peer reviewers, who examine the manuscripts submitted to a journal and advise the editors on whether the articles are suitable, also provide this service free of charge. Book publishers, who employ ‘readers’ – the equivalent of peer reviewers, who work with journal publishers – do pay the readers for a similar service. Even more important, the cost of research on which the research papers are based is borne not by the publisher but by research institutions and universities, which are often the beneficiaries of funds from the public—as are libraries, who pay the publishers in the form of subscriptions to their journals. It was this realization, along with increasingly steep subscriptions and simultaneous cuts in public or state funding, that led to the open-access movement.
Types of Open Access Publishing
That said, open access is not one category but encompasses several, depending on (1) whether the access to the contents is totally free to all or involves some restrictions and (2) whether the authors are required to pay any charges, typically referred to as article processing charges (APCs). The categories are labelled Gold, Hybrid, Green, Diamond (or Platinum), etc., based on the presence and scope of the restrictions. Note that restrictions may take the form of an ‘embargo’, which is a time-based restriction, offering open access not as soon as the paper in question is published but only after a stipulated period (typically 6 months or 1 year) has elapsed since publication.
Diamond or Platinum open access journals impose few restrictions on access and levy no APCs.
Gold open access journals offer free access to readers but may charge authors to publish.
Hybrid open access journals are a cross between full access and open access in that although they require a subscription, some – not all – papers or articles published by them are open access, because their authors have paid the required charges for providing such access.
Green open access implies access not to any particular journal but to a repository usually maintained by entities that employ researchers and therefore claim some rights to papers written by those researchers and choose to make those papers available to all without charge. However, the versions available in such repositories may not necessarily be the final versions, or versions of record, of papers eventually published by a given journal. In addition to these categories are some more, such as bronze, grey, and black, but these are less clearly defined and not in widespread use.
In general, open access is important to making the fruits of research available to all, a welcome trend in scholarly publishing that needs to be promoted. Its advantages to readers are obvious, but authors too benefit from open access because it extends their reach.
Frequently Asked Questions on Open Access
1. What is the difference between full access and open-access journals?
Both the terms imply access to the entire (‘full’) contents of a journal, as opposed to only some of the contents, such access is without a charge in the case of open-access journals but requires a fee (usually a subscription) in the case of ‘full access’ journals.
2. Is it good to publish in open access journals?
The status – open access versus subscription or other forms of payment – is only one aspect: the more important aspects are specialty versus multidisciplinary journals, high versus low rejection rates, local interest versus worldwide relevance, high versus low impact factor, and so on. Other things being equal, it is usually better to publish in an open-access journal.
3. How do I know if a journal is open access?
The journal’s website is the best source of information. The Directory of Open Access Journals (https://doaj.org/) is another reliable source, in which you can specifically search for journals without APCs. You can also search on Google Scholar for a specific article published in that journal and check whether the article is open access.
4. Do authors pay for open access journals?
Depends on the kind of open access the journal in question offers: Gold or Hybrid open access may involve paying APCs; Diamond (also referred to as Platinum) or Green open access does not.
