JEWLScholar, Institutional Repository: Open Access

To compliment the case and benefits of open access is licensing the work you produce. The Creative Commons copyright licenses are tools that forge a balance inside the traditional “all rights reserved” setting that copyright law creates. As the author of a work, you retain copyright while allowing others to copy, distribute, and make some uses of your work through selecting a CC BY license. Every Creative Commons license also ensures the authors get the credit for their work. Learn more about how to use the six different license types to select which one is best for you. 

                                                                 The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) are a catalyst for change towards open access across scholarly disciplines.

  Open Access (OA) stands for unrestricted access and    unrestricted reuse. Here’s why that matters.

Most publishers own the rights to the articles in their journals. Anyone who wants to read the articles must pay to  access them. Anyone who wants to use the articles in any way must obtain permission from the publisher and is  often required to pay an additional fee.

 Although many researchers can access the journals they need via their institution and think that their access is free, in reality it is not. The institution has often been involved in lengthy negotiations around the price of their site license and re-use of this content is limited.

Paying for access to content makes sense in the world of print publishing, where providing content to each new reader requires the production of an additional copy, but online it makes much less sense to charge for content when it is possible to provide access to all readers anywhere in the world. To learn more about the case for open access, click on the Open Access image above.

Benefits of Open Access Research

• Accelerated discovery. With open access, researchers can read and build on the findings of others without restriction.
• Public enrichment. Much scientific and medical research is paid for with public funds. Open Access allows taxpayers to see the results of their investment.
• Improved education. Open Access means that teachers and their students have access to the latest research findings throughout the world.

Rather learn about Open Access in a short video by PhD Comics? Check this out.

After determining which Creative Commons license works best for you, create your license here.

Check out the example license below.

Articles:

Making your publications open access: Resources to assist researchers and librarians (C&RL News)

Why open access is the next frontier for science

Resources:

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

Scholarly Communications Toolkit (ACRL)