Lane Medical Library

Are you considering using Open Access (OA) publishing?

Peer-reviewed high-impact journals abound, and a growing number of these are also Open Access (OA).

Since 2000, the number of published Open Access articles has grown at an average rate of 30% per year. This is nearly 10-fold the 3.5% annual increase in overall traditionally published articles.  Traditional ‘subscription’ publishers are also launching Open Access journals as part of their portfolio.

These trends indicate that Open Access materials could very likely dominate academic publishing in the future.

All the benefits of peer review plus more

OA publishing is similar to traditional publishing in peer review requirements—OA published articles must pass a rigorous review to conform to scientific process standards as do traditionally published articles.

Additional benefits of OA published materials include expanded reader access and copyright ownership. The full text of OA published articles plus charts and other data addenda are searchable and available digitally with no barriers – no passwords, no subscription fees. As an author, this means that your article is widely accessible and can be read by anyone.

Articles published in traditional subscription-based journals are only available to people who subscribe (or whose libraries subscribe) to the journal. This limited access in the traditional publishing model is one reason for the recent NIH Public Access Policy which requires that all research supported by NIH funds be published in PMC, so that everyone can learn from this publicly-funded research.  Learn more about how to meet the NIH requirement »

In the Open Access model, authors retain copyright to their materials versus signing it over to the publisher. Versions of the Creative Commons license represent the most standard licensing format for OA published materials.

What does it cost?

The cost of publishing exists in both the traditional and OA publishing models.  Traditional publishers place the cost of publishing (peer review, editorial and production staff, computer networking, etc.) on readers – individuals and institutions that subscribe.  This model limits the size of the audience to those who subscribe and also limits the number of articles that can be published to the production costs covered by subscription revenues.

Open Access publishers require authors (or their funders) to cover the cost of publishing.  This model enables OA publishers to make the articles available at no cost to potential readers and also enables them to expand the number of articles published with the growth in authors and subject areas. The fee to publish an Open Access article ranges from ~ $800 to ~ $5000. Open Access publishers can be ‘for profit’ (such as BioMed Central or Hindawi) or ‘Not For Profit’ (such as the Public Library of Science).  

Author Fees and Open Access publishing models »

Will I be cited?

A number of recent studies provide evidence that open access articles are cited more immediately and frequently. See:

• Do open access journals have impact?
  Sept. 13, 2011
• The Effect of open access and downloads ('hits') on citation impact: a bibliography of studies
  Last update Aug. 18, 2011
• Free Journals Grow Amid Ongoing Debate
  Aug, 2010

 How Do I Comply with NIH law?

The NIH requirement that all research supported by NIH funds be publicly available is independent of the alternative you choose for publishing your article.  The NIH requires that within 12 months of original publication the article must be submitted to PMC.

• Policy Overview
• Determine Applicability
• Address Copyright
• Submit paper to PMC
• Include PMCID in Citations

IMPORTANT!
Stanford Copyright Addendum

If your research falls under the NIH OA requirements, you must add an NIH compliant copyright addendum to the publisher's copyright agreement before you sign it.

The purpose of the addendum is to establish that the “Author retains the right to provide a copy of the final manuscript upon acceptance for publication to the NIH for public archiving in PMC as soon as possible but no later than 12 months after publication, in ac­cordance with federal regulations.”

Stanford has two versions of the addendum.

Preferred: The Preservation Version

It includes the additional condition “Author retains the right to give a copy of the final manuscript to Stanford University for preservation purposes, and further that Stanford University may make a copy of the final manu­script available to the public in any media now known or hereafter created.”

Acceptable: The Basic Version

Use it if a publisher does not agree to the local preservation condition.

See also: Author Rights: Using the SPARC Author Addendum to secure your rights as the author of a journal article