{"id":741,"date":"2017-10-22T12:33:09","date_gmt":"2017-10-22T12:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/an-early-career-researchers-guide-to-open-access-publishing\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:07:18","slug":"a-young-researchers-guide-to-open-access-publishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/a-young-researchers-guide-to-open-access-publishing","title":{"rendered":"An early career researcher’s guide to open access publishing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: This post was originally published in 2016 and has been refreshed for Open Access Week 2017.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In recent years, open access publishing has steadily gained momentum. Most journals and publishers today have open access channels and authors have the choice to publish open access. However, many authors, particularly those who are relatively new to academia, are still in a haze about open access publishing. What is open access publishing? What is the rationale behind open access publishing? What are the different venues for publishing open access? Such questions bother authors, and they are often skeptical about open access as there are several myths about it. This article aims to clear all doubts and provide the fundamentals of open access publishing.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What is open access?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Open access is built upon the idea that scientific research should be made freely available to all so that others can build upon it and help escalate scientific progress. Traditionally, the academic publishing industry has followed a subscription-based model. This model requires readers to pay for the content that they read. Typically, libraries purchase bulk subscription to a journal so that members or students can access the journals. But as subscription charges for journals started increasing, libraries found it increasingly difficult to purchase expensive journals. This was particularly true for libraries and institutions in developing countries where funding was scarce. As a result, researchers often could not access studies that they wished to, and this started affecting the progress of research. The need to remove this roadblock gave rise to the open access model of publishing in which readers have unrestricted and immediate access to research after it has been published with the permission to reuse it.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What are the different venues for open access publishing?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Broadly speaking, there are two models for open access publishing: gold and green.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Gold open access<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In this model, open access journals give readers free access to peer reviewed articles, but the publication charges are borne by the author(s) (which in some cases might include the author\u2019s institution or funder). Today, most big publishers offer open access options, and some, like\u00a0PLOS<\/a>, are purely open access. There are several major directories of open access journals, most notably\u00a0Directory of Open Access Journals<\/a>\u00a0(DOAJ) which can help researchers identify open access journals in their field.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Under the gold open access model, authors have different kinds of journals to choose from:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Full open access journals<\/b>: All articles published in such journals are freely available for readers on the journal website. Some of these journals are subsidized, and financed by an academic institution, a learned society, or by the government; but others may require the payment of a fee from the author(s), known as article processing charges (APCs) once the paper is accepted for publication.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hybrid journals<\/b>: Most of the articles in these journals are paywalled, with only some content open. Authors can choose to provide open access to their articles by paying an extra fee. This fee is generally known as open access fee. Some examples of hybrid open access journals are:\u00a0iOpenAccess<\/a>\u00a0by Taylor Francis,\u00a0Online Open<\/a>\u00a0by Wiley, or\u00a0Sage Open<\/a>\u00a0by Sage.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Delayed open access journals<\/b>: In this model, articles become free for readers some time after the initial publication. The time period for which the article is paywalled is known as embargo period. For most journals, the embargo period is six to twelve months.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Green open access<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Under green open access, authors publish in subscription-based journals, but at the same time deposit their articles in an open access repository. This is known as\u00a0self-archiving<\/a>. Thus, although the journal is behind a paywall, readers have free access to the article through the repository. Authors who cannot pay the fees for publishing in open access journals often take this route. However, articles may not be peer reviewed prior to posting in a repository. Another point to be kept in mind is that not all subscription-based journals allow authors to post their paper on a repository. Authors should, therefore, check the website of their target journal to find out whether self-archiving is allowed, and preferably take the journal\u2019s permission before self-archiving.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Open access repositories can be institutional or independent, subject-specific, such as\u00a0bioRxiv<\/a>,\u00a0Nature Precedings<\/a>, and\u00a0PubMed Central<\/a>, or multidisciplinary such as\u00a0arXiv<\/a>,\u00a0Global Open Access Portal<\/a>, and\u00a0Zenodo<\/a>.\u00a0Open<\/i>DOAR<\/a>\u00a0is a directory of academic open access repositories that provides a \u00a0list of repositories<\/a><\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There are\u00a0three basic versions of an article\u00a0that can be self-archived in repositories:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Pre-Prints<\/b><\/a>:<\/b>\u00a0This refers to the author’s copy of the article before it has been peer reviewed.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Post-Prints:<\/b>\u00a0This also refers to the author’s copy, but after it has been peer reviewed, with the suggested revisions incorporated, but before the publisher has formatted it for publication.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Publisher\u2019s version<\/b>: This refers to the final PDF of the article that is formatted and appears in print or online.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Popular misconceptions about open access<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As mentioned at the outset, authors are often unsure about open access publishing. This is largely due to some popular misconceptions about open access in their minds. Let us try to\u00a0dispel some of these myths<\/a>:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Open access journals are not peer reviewed<\/i>:\u00a0 This is an absolutely wrong idea. A journal\u2019s peer review policy has nothing to do with its access policy. Most open access journals are peer-reviewed.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Open access journals have low impact factors<\/i>: This is, once again, a myth. Many open access journals publish highly cited articles and receive high impact factors. For example,\u00a0Living Reviews in Relativity<\/i><\/a>\u00a0has an impact factor of 32. Additionally, authors should remember that\u00a0the impact factor is not the most reliable indicator of a journal\u2019s quality<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Publishing in open access journals is expensive<\/i>: Authors often avoid publishing in open access journals as they feel that they will not be able to afford the high APCs. However, the truth is that not all open access journals charge APCs, and the ones that do generally have the APCs clearly mentioned on their website. APCs vary across journals and are not always high. Additionally, many universities or funding bodies bear the APCs. Also, open access journals often waive fees for researchers in developing countries and those researchers who are in financial difficulty. For example, many\u00a0Nature Publishing Group journals have an APC waiver policy<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Open access publishing does not offer copyright protection or credit to authors:<\/i>\u00a0In fact, for many open access journals, such as\u00a0PLOS<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0BMJ<\/a>, authors retain copyright after publication. Additionally most open access journals use\u00a0Creative Commons licenses<\/a>\u00a0under which authors always receive credit when their work is reused.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As an early-career researcher, it is extremely important for you to recognize the importance of open access publishing. Science can progress only when immediate, unrestricted access to research is provided. We hope that in the coming years, researchers show more willingness to publish open access so that the scientific community, policy makers, and the general public can benefit from their research.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Related reading:<\/p>\n