Research Guides: Open Access: Open Access

Ask KSL

Kelvin Smith Library Ask A Librarian
Information on how to get help by email, phone, & chat.

Reminder: Online Access

Library resources require going through CWRU Single Sign-On.
The best method is to follow links from the library website.
When logged in and a browser window is not closed, access should continue from resource to resource.
Remember to close your browser when done.
More information see this guide.

The need for Open Access

Scholarly communication encompasses the systems and processes involved in the creation, dissemination, and preservation of knowledge. Many components of the scholarly communication system are continually evolving along with changes in technical infrastructure, social practices, and the economics of publishing. Libraries and their institutions can no longer keep up with the increasing volume and cost of scholarly publications. This is coupled with increasing restrictions on the use and re-use of journal articles and other scholarly publications, including the ability of authors to promote and share their own scholarship. The overall result is reduced access to the published literature.

increasing domination of a small number of commercial publishers
increase in volume of scholarly communication and increased specialization
rising subscription prices
development of new scholarly communication publishing models that are Internet-based
decreasing libraries budgets
increasing copyright restrictions may limit the use and re-use of journal articles

The Crisis in Scholarly Communication
Summary from University of Iowa Library
The Impact of Serial Costs on Library Collections
A 2001 serials costs study from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL).
Open access: The true cost of science publishing
Cheap open-access journals raise questions about the value publishers add for their money.
It’s Not Academic: How Publishers Are Squelching Science Communication
U.S. Periodicals Price Index

Open Access Explained!

Open Access Resources

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Free, full text, open access, quality-controlled scholarly journals. Covers all subjects and languages.

What is Open Access?

Open access literature is simply defined as “digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions."

A more detailed definition is:

free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.

-- From Budapest Open Access Initiative

Suber, P. Open Access Overview.