What is Open Access
Open access (OA) means unrestricted online access to peer-reviewed scholarly research. Open access is primarily intended for scholarly journal articles, but is also provided for a growing number of theses,[2] book chapters,[3] and scholarly monographs.[4]
Open access comes in two degrees: gratis open access, which is free online access, and libre open access, which is free online access plus some additional usage rights.[5] These additional usage rights are often granted through the use of various specific Creative Commons licenses.[6] Only libre open access is fully compliant with definitions of open access such as the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities.
The two ways authors can provide open access are (1) by self-archiving their journal articles in an open access repository, also known as 'green' open access, or (2) by publishing in an open access journal, known as 'gold' open access.[7] With green open access[8][9] authors publish in any journal and then self-archive a version of the article for gratis public use in their institutional repository,[10] in a central repository (such as PubMed Central), or on some other open access website. With gold open access, authors publish in open access journals,[11] which provide immediate open access to all of their articles, usually on the publisher's website. (from the Wikipedia page on Open Access. 2/13/2015)
Open Access Resources
- arXiv.orgOpen access to 1,012,588 e-prints in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance and Statistics. Started in August 1991, arXiv is a highly-automated electronic archive and distribution server for research articles. ArXiv was one of the precipitating factors that led to the current movement in scientific publishing known as open access.
- BMC (BioMed Central)A pioneer of open access publishing, BMC has an evolving portfolio of high quality peer-reviewed journals including broad interest titles such as BMC Biology and BMC Medicine, specialist journals such as Malaria Journal and Microbiome, and the BMC series.
- CourseSourceCourseSource is an open-access journal of peer-reviewed teaching resources for undergraduate biology and physics.
- Digital Commons NetworkA compilation of all the repositories that use the same service Olin uses to provide our Institutional Repository (https://scholarship.rollins.edu.) The Digital Commons Network brings together free, full-text scholarly articles from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide. Curated by university librarians and their supporting institutions, the Network includes a growing collection of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work.
- Digital Public Library of AmericaThe DPLA aims to create “an open, distributed network of comprehensive online resources that would draw on the nation’s living heritage from libraries, universities, archives, and museums in order to educate, inform, and empower everyone in current and future generations.”
- Directory of Open Access JournalsDOAJ is an online directory that indexes and provides access to quality open access, peer-reviewed journals. DOAJ journals are linked from other databases provided by the Olin Library. In the past DOAJ has suffered from quality control issues. They are working hard to rectify those weaknesses.
- EuropeanaEuropeana is funded by the European Union, which is building the open, trusted source for European cultural content and aims to aggregate and provide access to the digitised collections of museums, libraries, archives and galleries across Europe.
- IDEAS at Research papers in Economics (RePEc)IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. While not strictly open access, over 1,700,000 items can be browsed or searched, and over 1,500,000 can be downloaded in full text! RePEc aims to enhance the dissemination of research in Economics and related sciences. The heart of the project is a decentralized bibliographic database of working papers, journal articles, books, books chapters and software components, all maintained by volunteers.
- Knowledge UnlatchedKnowledge Unlatched (KU) offers free access to scholarly content for every reader across the world.
- Lever PressAn open access press operated by the Oberlin Group Libraries
- Open Library of HumanitiesThe Open Library of Humanities (OLH) is a charitable organisation dedicated to publishing open access scholarship with no author-facing article processing charges (APCs).
- OpenStaxOpenStax is a nonprofit based at Rice University, and it’s their mission to improve student access to education. OpenStax provides open access textbooks in a number of different fields, that have been widely adopted at colleges and universities.
- Open Textbook LibraryOpen textbooks are textbooks that have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. These books have been reviewed by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to assess their quality. These books can be downloaded for no cost, or printed at low cost. All textbooks are either used at multiple higher education institutions; or affiliated with an institution, scholarly society, or professional organization.
- PLOS (Public Library of Science)The Public Library of Science (PLOS) was founded in 2001 as a nonprofit organization to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication.
- PubMed This link opens in a new windowPubMed comprises more than 24 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. Olin library has ensured that links in PubMed to toll access materials licensed by Olin link to the full text of articles in the Olin KnowledgeBase.
- Registry of Open Access RepositoriesIt is exactly that, a registry of open access repositories.
- Rollins Scholarship OnlineRollins Scholarship Online (RSO) collects and organizes the research and scholarly output of Rollins faculty and students, and makes their work accessible to scholars and researchers worldwide. RSO also hosts journals, conferences, and other collections. RSO is administered by the Olin Library and serves as a permanent digital archive for these materials.
- Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyThe Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy organizes scholars from around the world in philosophy and related disciplines to create and maintain an up-to-date reference work.
More About Open Access
- Berlin DeclarationThe Declaration is one of the founding documents of the open access movement. Rollins signed in 2011.
- COAPIThe Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions brings together universities etc. that have passed or are interested in passing open access polices.
- Open Access WeekAn annual international event that brings together activists, students, and scholars around the issues of open access.
- SPARCSPARC, The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resource Coalition, is an international alliance of academic libraries seeking to create a more open system of scholarly communication. Great source for news about and assistance with open access. Rollins is a member.
- OA2020 InitiativeThe OA2020 initiative for the large-scale transition to open access
Subject Guide
Rene Tanner
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