Open Access Publishing: Why open access (OA)?
Comply with your funding mandates
- Browse Article and Data Sharing Requirements by Federal AgencyFrom Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), "This is a community resource for tracking, comparing, and understanding both current and future U.S. federal funder requirements for sharing research articles and research data...review and compare agencies' public access plans for articles or data sharing requirements."
- Sherpa JulietFrom the United Kingdom's Jisc, formerly known as Joint Information Systems Committee, "Sherpa Juliet is a searchable database and single focal point of up-to-date information concerning funders' policies and their requirements on open access, publication and data archiving." This resource lists funders from multiple countries, with the most listings from the United States and the UK.
- Expanding Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded ResearchIn February 2013, the White House issued a new policy directive that all major federal agencies require articles and supporting data based on government funded research be made open access within one year of publication.
- Revised Policy on Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH-Funded ResearchThe forerunner of the 2013 federal OA mandates was a strong National Institutes of Health policy that went into effect in 2008 requiring open access to all journal articles based on research funded by NIH.
Increase your impact
Many studies have indicated that open access articles are downloaded twice as frequently and cited anywhere from 10 percent to over 100 percent more than equivalent articles published in subscription journals, where your article is locked behind a pay wall.
Share your work
Open access publishing frequently allows for more liberal sharing of your work...without violating copyright or publishers' sharing policies. Sharing your work more widely increases your work's exposure, which will increase its impact and contribute to the public good.
- Author Rights & the SPARC Author AddendumBefore transferring ownership of your intellectual output to a publisher, it is important to understand the options and the consequences. This resource from SPARC helps you do that.
- Open Policy Finder (formerly SherpaRomeo)From Jisc, "Sherpa Romeo is an online resource that aggregates and analyses publisher open access policies from around the world and provides summaries of publisher copyright and open access archiving policies on a journal-by-journal basis." This is the tool to use for determining which version of your journal article (pre-print, post-print, version of record) you may upload to the UB Institutional Repository, a disciplinary repository, or an academic social network like ResearchGate or Academia.edu.
- UB Institutional Repository (UBIR)The University at Buffalo Institutional Repository collects, preserves, and distributes UB's research and scholarship.