Open Access and Scholarly Communication

Open Access (OA) is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the right to use these articles fully in a digital environment, as defined by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).  

There are two main ways to make your research open access: 

1. Publishing in an open access journal (gold, hybrid, or diamond journals). 
2. Depositing a previously published article in an open-access repository. 



Open access is beneficial because it democratizes access to knowledge by making scholarly outputs (journal articles, data, books) freely available to the public. This approach fosters innovation, accelerates scientific progress, and promotes inclusivity, allowing individuals worldwide to benefit from and contribute to a wealth of information. It also enhances collaboration among researchers, ultimately advancing our collective understanding and addressing global challenges more effectively.

"Benefits of Open Access" by Danny Kingsley & Sarah Brown is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Key benefits include:

• More exposure for your work
• Practitioners can apply your findings
• Higher citation rates
• Your research can influence policy
• The public can access your findings
• Compliant with grant rules
• Taxpayers get value for money
• Researchers in developing countries can see your work 

Gold Open Access: Articles are published in open access journals, making them freely available immediately upon publication, often with article processing charges.

Green Open Access: Authors self-archive their work in repositories, allowing free access after an embargo period.

Hybrid Open Access: Subscription-based journals offer an option for authors to make individual articles open access for a fee.

Diamond Open Access: Journals provide free access to articles without charging authors or readers, often funded by institutions or organizations.

Bronze Open Access: Articles are made publicly available by publishers but may not have a formal open access license, often with limited rights for reuse.

• Register for an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID), a globally recognized unique digital identifier that helps connect your name to your work
• Understand and protect your rights as an author
• Deposit copies of your work in Mountain Scholar, CSU’s open access repository
• Publish your research data openly in Dryad 
• Upload your scientific code / scripts/ models openly in a code repository