Need Help?
Additional information about open access publication funds
- Stuart Shieber, "Equity for Open-Access Journal Publishing," PLoS Biology, 2009Article in which Stuart Shieber of Harvard proposed that universities and funding agencies support publication fees in open access journals so that open access journals could "compete on a more level playing field" with subscription-based journals.
- Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity (COPE)Universities that are signatories to COPE (as is URI) commit to "the timely establishment of durable mechanisms for underwriting reasonable publication charges for articles written by its faculty and published in fee-based open-access journals and for which other institutions would not be expected to provide funds."
- Scott Jaschik, "Breakthrough on Open Access," Inside Higher Ed, 2009Article about the establishment of the Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity.
- OA journal funds (Open Access Directory)Comprehensive list of funds to support OA journals. The funds may be hosted by universities, research centers, foundations, or government agencies.
- Campus Open Access Publishing Funds (SPARC)Resources helpful in establishing institutional open access funds from the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system.
- North American Campus-Based Open Access Funds: A Five-Year Progress Report (2014)A progress report from SPARC on the quantitative and anecdotal successes of campus-based OA Funds across North America.
- How much does a COPE-compliant open-access fund cost?Blog post by Harvard's Stuart Shieber on the low costs of COPE-compliant funds.
- Why not underwrite hybrid fees?Harvard's Stuart Shieber explains in a blog post why he recommends against university open access funds supporting publication in subscription-based journals that charge a fee to make to make single articles available open access.
- Institutional memberships for open-access publishers considered harmfulBlog post by Harvard's Stuart Shieber, who argues against institutional memberships with OA publishers (e.g. BioMed Central, Hindawi, and Public Library of Science) because they have the potential to result in hyperinflation of fees.
- How universities can support open-access journal publishingStuart Shieber explains why university open access funds should follow the principles that underlie the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity (COPE).
Additional information about "gold" open access journals
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
This link opens in a new window
Covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. Aims to cover all subjects and languages. - HowOpenIsIt? A Guide for Evaluating the Openness of JournalsGuide to help authors understand the components that define open access journals in order to make informed decisions about where to publish. Openness criteria include reader rights, reuse rights, copyrights, author posting rights, automatic posting, and machine readability.
- Björk and Solomon, "Open Access Versus Subscription Journals: A Comparison of Scientific Impact," BMC Medicine, 2012Research study concluding that "OA journals indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus are approaching the same scientific impact and quality as subscription journals, particularly in biomedicine and for journals funded by article processing charges."
- Peterson, "Characteristics of Retracted Open Access Biomedical Literature: A Bibliographic Analysis," JASIST, 2013Study reached the conclusion that "open access literature does not differ from fee-for-access literature in terms of impact factor, detection of error, or change in postretraction citation rates... Open access literature appears to be of similar reliability and integrity as the population of biomedical literature in general, with the added value of being more forthcoming about the nature of errors when they are identified."
- Is open-access journal publishing a vanity publishing industry?Blog post by Harvard's Stuart Shieber, who presents evidence that "vanity journal domination is not occurring, nor is it likely to occur, among OA journals."
- Will open-access publication fees grow out of control?Harvard's Stuart Shieber makes the case that competition for authors will keep publication fees in OA journals affordable so long as market mechanisms remain in place.
- Why open access is better for scholarly societiesStuart Shieber of Harvard examines the economics of scholarly publishing and concludes that scholarly societies would be at a competitive advantage if they shifted the business model for their journals to open access.
- Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)OASPA has established a Professional Code of Conduct for open access publishers to ensure consistent high standards in OA publishing.
Additional information about open access
To learn more about open access in general, please consult the resources listed below.
- Wikipedia article on "Open access"Comprehensive overview of open access, with references.
- Open Access Overview by Peter SuberIntroduction to open access for those who are new to the concept by one of its key advocates.
- SPARC on open accessOpen access resources and readings from the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system.
- Open Access by Peter Suber (MIT Press, 2012)"In this concise introduction, Peter Suber tells us what open access is and isn't, how it benefits authors and readers of research, how we pay for it, how it avoids copyright problems, how it has moved from the periphery to the mainstream, and what its future may hold. Distilling a decade of Suber's influential writing and thinking about open access, this is the indispensable book on the subject for researchers, librarians, administrators, funders, publishers, and policy makers." Updates and supplements are available here.
- Understanding Open Access: When, Why, & How to Make Your Work Openly Accessible (2015)Short book from the Authors Alliance about "when, why, and how to make your work openly accessible," with the goal of encouraging authors to "consider open access publishing by addressing common questions and concerns and by providing real-life strategies and tools that authors can use to work with publishers, institutions, and funders to make their works more widely accessible to all."
- Open Access Tracking Project (OATP)News feed with links to content related to the worldwide movement for open access to research.
- Open Access Directory (OAD)The Open Access Directory (OAD) is a compendium of simple factual lists about open access (OA) to science and scholarship, maintained by the OA community at large.
- Open Access Citation Advantage (SPARC Europe)List of studies on whether or not there is a citation advantage for Open Access articles.
- Authors Alliance"Authors Alliance promotes authorship for the public good by supporting authors who write to be read. We embrace the unprecedented potential digital networks have for the creation and distribution of knowledge and culture. We represent the interests of authors who want to harness this potential to share their creations more broadly in order to serve the public good."
Contact information
The URI Open Access Fund is managed by the University Libraries.
Financial support for the fund is provided by the Office of the Provost and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development.
Reimbursements are processed through the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development.
University Libraries contact:
Andrée Rathemacher
(401) 874-5096
oafund-group@uri.edu
Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development contact:
Patti Correia
(401) 874-4576
pcorreia@uri.edu