What is Open Access?
The open access movement has emerged in response to a number of factors: growing journal costs and disparities in access to scholarship, the emergence of the internet, as well as the growing number large scale problems that require large and diverse team engagement.
While open access generally refers to published scholarly journal articles, the open movement also encompasses:
- open data
- open educational resources
- open science
These facets of open research impact different communities in different ways, but all contribute an important piece to open scholarship.
At a more basic level, OA applies to published scholarly material, making it available online free of charge to all. OA fits into scholarly communication norms. Just like any reputable journal, OA journals still:
- peer review
- are indexed in research databases
- have copyright agreements
See Also
Open Access Publishing Statistics – WordsRatedWhere Did the Open Access Movement Go Wrong?: An Interview with Richard Poynder - The Scholarly KitchenOpen access vs. Traditional Publishing: How to Make the Right Choice | Researcher.LifeLibGuides: Where (and Where Not) to Publish Your Work: Avoid PREDATORY Journals