Open Access Week 2023:  Misunderstandings About The Model

International Open Access Week is October 23 – 29, 2023, and is dedicated to promoting Open Access and the ways students, scholars, and educators can use it for their teaching, learning, and research.

What is Open Access?

Open Access is a publishing access model that makes the outputs of scholarly research, ranging from books, journals, and data, freely and openly available.  It can accelerate research and discovery, and its publications can be repurposed as teaching and learning materials.  Open Access began a response to scholarly publishing business models that are viewed as restrictive in terms of access. Fifty-four percent (54%) of journals and scholarly publications are currently available as Open Access.

Open Access is Often Misunderstood.

Open Access publications are often mistaken for being deceptive or predatory publishers. While many publications misuse the publishing model, many high-quality and high-impact journals are Open Access. When a reputable publisher is found for their manuscript, researchers and scholars often find Open Access APCs (article publishing charges) to be too costly for its submission. 

Is Public Access the same as Open Access?

Public access policies are those created by research sponsors that require the outputs of their funded research to be publicly available. Some funders call them public access policies (i.e., National Science Foundation) while others refer to them as open access policies (i.e., The Bill and Melinda French Gates Foundation).  Although the terms are associated, they are not the same concept. 

The University Libraries want to debunk these myths in their upcoming webinars for Open Access Week.

Open Access Week Webinars

Issues in Open Access: Transformative Agreements and Deceptive Publishers
Tuesday, October 24, 2023 from 12:00 – 12:30 PM
Via Teams; Register at https://bit.ly/OA-Issues

Scholars and researchers may hesitate to publish in Open Access publication because of common misunderstandings. The main ones are the (sometimes) high costs of getting published and deceptive (predatory) publishers.  This half-hour webinar will introduce FAU’s transformative agreements that waive Open Access fees. In addition, the webinar covers deceptive publishers, their characteristics, and ways to consider if a publication may be one.

Recommended for faculty, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and staff and undergraduate students with interests in scholarly publishing.

Public Access Policies: What They Mean to Scholars
Thursday, October 26, 2023 from 12:00 – 12:50 PM
Via Teams; Register at https://bit.ly/OA-Public-Access

Research funders, whether they are a federal agency or an organization, are increasingly requiring the results of their funded research to be publicly available. Last year’s memorandum from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), known as The Nelson Memo, expanded public access policies in federal agencies that fund research and development. This webinar will provide an overview of these policies and ways to discern their requirements so researchers can prepare their workflows and successfully adhere to them.

Recommended for faculty, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and staff and undergraduate students who work with research funding.

For more information, see Scholarly Communication Services or contact kpadron@fau.edu