Open Access Models

Open access in academia means to have scholarly research works available on the web without fees and without copyright restrictions. Different models for OA exist. Two more common models include:

• Green OA - Authors publish articles in whatever journals they choose, but deposit their final refereed draft in their university's institutional repository to make it free online.

• Gold OA - Authors publish in journals that make their articles free online, sometimes at a fee to the author/university.

• Hybrid versions of these models also exist. Some material may have an embargo and is made openly accessible after a period of time designated by the publisher or copyright holder. Some funding institutions attempt to make research openly accessible by placing mandates on authors, requiring them to make their work openly accessible within a defined period of time.

Mandates

Some universities and granting organizations place mandates on authors to comply with open access models. The National Institute of Health (NIH) mandates researchers funded by the organization to submit final peer-reviewed manuscripts to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central for open access within 12 months of publication.

A proposed federal mandate called the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) would require all researchers funded by federal agencies to submit their peer-reviewed manuscripts within 6 months of publication to the respective federal funder. Each federal agency would be required to have an open access repository for this research. The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Mandate Resources:

Repositories

Institutional and disciplinary repositories have emerged to support open access. Content in these open access repositories may vary. Most contain peer-reviewed scholarly journals, journal articles, books, or book chapters all with varied pre or post-publication formatting. The University of Marquette has had its IR since 2009. Visit ePublications@Marquette to view the scholarly work of our faculty, staff, and students.

Other repositories can be found through OpenDOAR, the Directory of Open Access Repositories. This resource not only allows users to search for repositories but also repository contents and statistics.

Open Access Journals

There are many universities and disciplinary organizations creating openly accessible journals for researchers to publish in. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a resource for scholars and researchers interested in depositing their work in a peer-reviewed, openly accessible electronic journal.