The 21st -27th October 2024 marks this year’s International open access week, an annual event organized by SPARC, a not for profit advocacy organization supporting research systems that are “open by default and equitable by design” (SPARC, n.d.).
Open Access Week is aimed at engaging the global research community to learn more about the potential benefits of open access, in an attempt to change the ways in which academic research is conducted, published and disseminated to a wider audience.
Continuing the 2023 theme of “Community over Commercialization,” this year’s event focuses on promoting academic led publishing initiatives, over the traditional route offered by large commercial academic publishing companies, in a move to prevent what UNESCO describe as “inequitable extraction of profit from publicly funded scientific activities” (UNESCO, 2021).
What is open access?
“Open Access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions” (Suber, 2004), and enables a wider section of society to gain access to research, often publicly funded, that would traditionally be restricted by publisher paywalls.
The principle routes to open access publishing cover:
- Gold open access: making your research freely available with a reuse licence. This route usually requires the payment of an open access fee.
- Green open access: depositing your accepted manuscript in an institutional or subject repository, often with a publisher stipulated embargo.
- Diamond open access: making your research available in an open access platform without any costs. These platforms are often academic community led.
Community open access developments
In recent years there have been significant changes made in the open research landscape by researchers, funders and community support services, that have sought to further develop open research practices and publishing. Some of these include:
- An increasing number of research funder policies mandating open access for both research articles and monographs, including UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Horizon Europe and Wellcome Trust. A key focus for many of these policies is the recognition of institutional repositories such as City Research Online (CRO) as a valid route to open access.
- Development of new open access publishing platforms led by research funders to enable academic researchers make their findings available with no costs. Examples include NIHR Open Research, Open Research Europe (European Commission funded), and Wellcome Open Research
- A growing number of diamond open access publishing venues. This covers open publishing platforms and online journals which are community driven, academic- owned academic-led publishing initiatives. Often funded by subscriptions, they allow researchers to publish without paying any open access fees.
For further information on routes to open access please visit our City Research Online (CRO) and open access library guides, or contact the Publications Team if you have any questions.
SPARC (n.d.) SPARC Who we are. Available at: https://sparcopen.org/who-we-are/ (Accessed: 21 October 2024)
Suber, P. (2004) Open Access Overview. Available at: http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm (Accessed: 16 October 2024)
UNESCO (2021) UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379949 (Accessed: 20 October 2023)