FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY
International Open Access Week is observed on October 24 – 30. It is dedicated to promoting Open Access and the various ways students, scholars, and educators utilize it for teaching, learning, and research.
Q: I like the idea of publishing my article with Open Access, but one journal wanted over $3,000 to do this! Are there ways around this? Is this even legit?
A: Yes. One option is to request a waiver from the publisher or organization responsible for the journal. A second option is to find a journal that does not have an article processing charge (APC). A third is to see if your organization has a transformative agreement with a publisher that may waive or reduce your APC. Finally, an APC is usually legitimate unless it is a predatory or deceptive publisher.
Q: Is an Open Access journal automatically a predatory or deceptive one?
A: Open Access is a model that makes scholarly work freely available by transferring the costs of publishing from subscriptions and paywalls to authors or waivers. Deceptive or predatory journals misuse the Open Access model. Instead of aspiring to make scholarly work readily and openly available, deceptive journals want to make a quick buck off scholars who are eager to get published.
Q: Does the library have a list of predatory or deceptive journals?
A: Sorry, we don't. The publishing industry has difficulty waking these determinations. We strongly advise you to know the common characteristics of deceptive journals and to perform due diligence or appraisal of a journal, especially if its promises seem too good to be true (like acceptance within 24 hours).
Q: I heard the FAU Libraries has a transformative agreement with some publishers. What does that mean?
A: Transformative agreements are contracts between publishers and institutions. They allow subscribing institutions to read a publisher's content and include APC waivers for institutional affiliates who want to publish their manuscripts as Open Access works. Florida's State University System (SUS) has a read and publish agreement with Cambridge University Press (CUP). FAU affiliates can waive APCs for their accepted manuscripts for participating CUP journals. Starting in 2023, the FAU Libraries will have two additional transformative agreements.
Q: Is the Cambridge University Press read and publish agreement only for FAU professors?
A: The agreement requires that its corresponding author is an affiliate of FAU or one of the SUS institutions. This can include FAU faculty, instructors, and staff. It can also include undergraduate and graduate students and anyone who is an FAU employee!
Q: Does Open Access have anything to do with the recent OSTP public access memorandum?
A. It's not the same, though they are connected. The August 2022 memo from The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy recommends that all federal agencies update their public access policies by December 2025. This includes making publications and data that are the results of their sponsored research publicly available and without an embargo.
Public access mandates are defined as regulations and requirements from agencies or research funders to make the outputs of their sponsored research available to the public, usually by making it available in a repository or one that is open to the public. A funder can promote the work it sponsors, and its availability can accelerate further research or lead to new creations. Some researchers may utilize Open Access, which is a publishing model, to fulfill the public access mandate, but they may want to verify what their funder requires to complete it.
For more information on Open Access models, waivers, and transformative agreements, all are welcome to attend the upcoming webinar or see the recommended links:
- Introduction to Open Access
Tuesday, October 25, 12 – 12:50 PM
Via Zoom; Register at https://bit.ly/3e0lkpm
Imagine a world where anyone can read scholarly or creative works without a subscription or paywall! This happens thanks to Open Access (OA) publishing! This presentation introduces OA, how to find OA publications to publish your work, and ways you can support and promote OA.
- Open Access: Models and Paying for It
Wednesday, October 26, 12 – 12:50 PM
Via Zoom; Register at https://bit.ly/3Ey24dJ
Open Access (OA) funding shifts the costs of publishing, but it doesn't mean authors always have to pay! This presentation introduces Open Access funding models, ways authors can bypass the cost of publishing in OA, and information on FAU's transformative agreement with a major publisher that waives these costs.
Kristy Padron, Scholarly Communication Librarian. kpadron@fau.edu
