Getting Started

Open Access Australasia describes open access as

a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of cost or other access barriers.  Through licensing via an open license (usually a Creative Commons License), freely available outputs can be legally shared and reused.

It’s important to remember that open access is therefore more than free access.  Open Access (OA)  was first defined in a series of declarations in the early 2000s, the Budapest, Berlin and Bethesda declarations. The principles behind open access have not changed; to use the online environment to ensure equitable access to research outputs for all .

An old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented public good. The old tradition is the willingness of scientists and scholars to publish the fruits of their research in scholarly journals without payment, for the sake of inquiry and knowledge. The new technology is the internet. The public good they make possible is the world-wide electronic distribution of the peer-reviewed journal literature and completely free and unrestricted access to it by all scientists, scholars, teachers, students, and other curious minds.

Open access publishing uses the same quality control – peer review –   as do traditional journals. The change that open access supports is in the open method of dissemination; there is no difference in quality or rigor of content between subscription based and open access journals.

Many large research funding bodies – including the Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) – now insist that an open access version of articles arising from their funded research is made available. Many universities also have open access policies. A list of open access policies in Australasia is compiled here.

Benefits of Open Access

Open access accelerates the pace of discovery by exposing research findings to a wider audience. By harnessing the power of networks to share research findings with practitioners who can apply the new knowledge, open access also accelerates the translation of research into benefits for the public.

While open access is of enormous benefit to researchers, so too is it of benefit to wider audiences. Open access allows far more people to view research, compared with research in subscription journals.  Readers  could be anyone from researchers in other countries, to the public in a specific locality, and even  policymakers . The impact of an open access scholarly work has the potential to be far greater than if it was in a subscription journal.

The evolution that has occurred in the open access landscape has led to the many open access models now present  today. This chapter discusses some of the various open access models available, and additional forms of research outputs beyond journal articles that are also available via open access models.

Open Access Models

Open access models are sometimes, and often confusingly, known by a colour. Generally, is it best practice to refer to specific model (eg repository- based or journal-based), rather than the colour, especially when talking with academics. The most important distinction in models is between repository-based and journal-based open access.  However, for reference,  definitions of the various colours of open access are provided below.

Activity: Match the open access model to its short description:

JOURNAL-BASED OPEN ACCESS

The journal-based open access  model is where the published version of a journal article (sometimes called the ‘Version of Record’) is freely available via the journal, immediately upon publication, and is licensed for re-use (generally via a Creative Commons License).  In some, but not all, cases, the author may be required to pay an article processing charge (APC) in lieu of the revenue the publisher would otherwise recoup via subscriptions or pay-to-view access payments.  However, more  than 11,000 of the peer reviewed journals currently listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals do not charge an APC.  This is made possible because the journals are supported by the host university or a scholarly society.  This form of journal-based open access is sometimes referred to as ‘Diamond Open Access’.  Many universities around the world are now publishing one or more ‘Diamond Open Access’ journals. For example, see the suite of journals published by Queensland University of Technology (QUT).   Another variant of journal-based open access is the ‘hybrid’ model. This is where the authors pay an optional APC to have their article published open access in an otherwise subscription-based journal.  Hybrid open access is rarely the preferred model of funders or institutions.

REPOSITORY-BASED OPEN ACCESS

Currently, the most commonly adopted open access model in Australia is repository-based open access.  Also known as Green OA, this option involves authors sharing a copy of the ‘Accepted Manuscript’ version of their peer reviewed publications via an institutional repository such as QUT ePrints or a subject repository such as PubMed Central.  The ‘Accepted Manuscript’ is sometimes called the ‘Accepted Version’ or AAM (Authors Accepted Manuscript) or the ‘Postprint’.   By definition, this is the post-peer review version of the manuscript.  It includes revisions made by the authors after peer review but, unlike the ‘Published Version’ it does not include post-acceptance enhancements contributed by the publisher such as copy-editing, formatting and reference-linking.  Repository-based open access is free, legal and is currently compliant with all institutional and funder OA policies in Australia. Read more about the OA policy at QUT in their Manual of Policies and Procedures.

Institutional repositories commonly include a diverse range of open access research outputs including reports,  higher degree theses and datasets.

Learn more

As mentioned in the introduction, the open access landscape is a rapidly changing space. There is a continuing rise in the acceptance of open access by publishers and increased advocacy and support for open access by academic institutions, national groups such as Open Access Australasia and Council of Australian University Libraries (CAUL), and international bodies such as UNESCO. This has sparked conversation about best practice and expectations from many stakeholders involved, driving change in areas of concern. Such areas include addressing the concerns around ‘double-dipping’ witnessed with hybrid journals.

In recent years, the publication of OA books and monographs has also risen, with many of the issues surrounding the cost of publishing open access now being actively addressed by stakeholders in the academic community.

Read further to learn more about these concerns, and what initiatives have lead to greater change in OA publishing.

Transformative Agreements

A subscription or hybrid journal that makes an explicit commitment to moving to fully open status is known as a Transformative Journal (TJ). The publishers of transformative journals have pledged to offer more content openly over time and to resist collecting double payments by offsetting subscription income from payments for APCs. In Australasia, transformative agreements are negotiated on behalf of universities by CAUL. A list of current agreements is available via the CAUL website.  A global registry of transformative agreements is being compiled, collaboratively, by ESAC, a community of Library practitioners coordinated by the Max Planck Digital Library.

Transformative and Hybrid Journals

The 2018 initiative Plan S, supported by cOAlition S, initially a group of European funders but now with worldwide support, is an important open access initiative. Plan S requires that, from 2021, scientific publications that result from research funded by public grants must be made immediately open access in compliant Open Access journals or platforms.  A key premise of Plan S is to move away from the hybrid model of publishing.

Plan S-compliant transformative journals make an explicit commitment to transition to Open Access and they are held accountable to specific annual transition KPIs.  They also commit to explicitly formulated policies to avoid receiving double payments and to be transparent in their finances.

Exercise: View the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Transformative Journals using the below link.

Transformative Journals: Frequently Asked Questions

Open access books

Until recently, there were few options available for publishing open access books. Partly, this was due to the high fixed costs associated with providing editorial support, proof-reading, and type-setting services to book authors.

Open access university book publishing

There are a number of successful open access book publishers globally. In Australasia, notable open access book publishers include ANU press. UTS ePress and Tuwhera, based at AUT.

Challenge me

Read and Publish or publish and read Agreements

These agreements are negotiated between a publisher and a library or library consortia, to allow for open access publishing.

Read and Publish often relates to the library continuing to pay their subscription fee to read a journal (or package of journals from a single publisher) but allows authors to publish open access for no APC. Publish and Read puts the emphasis on the the subscription being for the publishing open access component but allows readers from the subscribing institution to read for free. With both of these options, it is in an attempt to make library  subscriptions move away from read only access to open access. This is a very simplified explanation for both and the contract details for any agreement will vary as negotiated.

Exercise:  Discover whether or not your institution has signed up to any transformative or read and publish agreements. If yes, how are you promoting them to your users? Are the agreements truly transformative?

Attributions

Content in this chapter has been developed by QUT Library, including content derived from:

• Explore FAQs from  Open Access Australasia

• Five Open Access Tips for 21st century researchers: Tip #2 from the QUT Blog

• Apply for APC Support from QUT Intranet (QUT credentials required)
• Bosman, J., Frantsvåg, J. E., Kramer, B., Langlais, P-C., & Proudman, V. (2021). OA Diamond Journals Study. Part 1: Findings. Science Europe & cOAlition S. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4558704

All information correct at time of publication, 19 January 2022.

Image credits

Royalty-free images used on this page were sourced from unsplash.com.

Icons created by priyanka, DinosoftLab and Wichai Wi from Noun Project.

Open Access Benefits Diagram is by Danny Kingsley and Sarah Brown and is available under CC-BY 4.0 licence.