Open Access
“Societal advancement is made possible through widespread and barrier-free access to cutting-edge research and knowledge.” — Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications
What is Open Access?
Open-access (OA) literature is literature that is freely available online in perpetuity, free of most copyright and licensing restrictions, and published with the consent of the author or copyright-holder. Readers do not require a subscription or any other form of payment, either personally or through their university or library, to access the content. They may download, copy and redistribute an Open Access publication, so long as it is attributed to the author.
While Open Access archives may contain unreformed preprints, scholarly open access publications in their final form typically adhere to the same standards, including peer review, as other scholarly literature.
Some definitions
- An Open-Access Repository is a central repository (such as PubMed Central) or an institutional repository that makes its content available without charge and without requiring an institutional affiliation. The University of Winnipeg hosts WinnSpace, an Open Access institutional repository for University scholarship.
- An Open-Access Journal provides immediate open access to all of their articles, usually on the publisher's website
- Gold Open Access means the author publishes an article in an open-access journal
- Green Open Access means the author self-archives a journal article in an open-access repository such as WinnSpace, possibly alongside publication in a traditional journal; similarly on the SHERPA/RoMEO website the code green signifies that a journal allows its authors to self-archive
Benefits of Open Access
- Open access articles are freely available to the public and to researchers from the global community. This makes research available to policy-makers, health-care workers, educators and scholars in the developing world.
- Studies have shown that Open Access publications are read and cited more often than other publications.
- When authors assign copyright to a commercial publisher, they normally forfeit the right to copy, distribute, or repurpose their own work, or to give others permission to do so. Authors who publish in Open Access journals retain their copyright and control their own work.
- Open Access publication removes price barriers. Access to a single academic journal may cost thousands of dollars a year. Removing subscription costs means that readers are not limited by their own ability to pay, or by the budgets of institutions where they have library privileges.
- Some funding agencies require Open Access publication of the research they sponsor; if not immediately, then within a certain period of time (see SHERPA/JULIET). As of February 27, 2015, Open Access publication is required by the SSHRC, NSERC, and CIHR.
Publishing Open Access at University of Winnipeg
The University of Winnipeg supports a number of Open Access initiatives at an institutional level. These options include:
WinnSpace
The University hosts WinnSpace, our open access institutional repository, as a key knowledge mobilization tool. WinnSpace provides access to and increases visibility of University of Winnipeg scholarship, and is freely available to all. Publishing a copy of your research on WinnSpace can help maximize impact. For more information, please visit the WinnSpace Institutional Repository.
Off-setting Article Processing Charges for Open Access
Related Pages
- How to comply with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications
- Avoiding Predatory Publishers
- Research Impact
- WinnSpace Institutional Repository
- Author's Rights