Skip to Main Content

Open Access

About this guide

About this guide

Welcome to our Open Access Guide

This guide is meant to provide more information on open access, as well as to provide links to openly licensed resources 

What is open access? 

According to the UNESCO, open access is means "free access to information and unrestricted use of electronic resources for everyone. Any kind of digital content can be OA, from texts and data to software, audio, video, and multi-media. While most of these are related to text only, a growing number are integrating text with images, data, and executable code. OA can also apply to non-scholarly content, like music, movies, and novels" (taken from UNESCO Open Access Publication) 

Open access is gaining momentum all over the world. To gain a better understanding of open access watch this video created by PHDComics which will give you a brief history and background on this topic. 

Check out these websites on open access as well: 

International Open Access Week

Did you know that there is an entire week, normally in October, dedicated to Open Access. This is known as International Open Access Week. During this period the open access community get together to discuss issues and trends in open access. to find out more go to the International Open Access Week website. 

Types of Open Access

According to the Open Access Academy, there are several different types of open access 

  • Pre-print – a manuscript draft that has not yet been subject to formal peer review, distributed to receive early feedback on research from peers.
  • Post-print – a manuscript draft after it has been peer reviewed.
  • Version of Record (VOR) – the final version of a manuscript, after peer review and processing by a publishers.
  • Hybrid – a type of journal in which certain articles are made open access for typically a significantly higher price (relative to full OA journals), while others remain toll access.
  • Accepted author manuscript – the version of a manuscript that has been accepted by a publisher for publication.
  • Eprint – a digital version of a research document available online for a repository.
  • Green OA – making a version of the manuscript freely available in a repository.
  • Gold OA – making the final version of manuscript freely available immediately upon publication by the publisher.
  • Gratis OA – the paper is available to read free-of-charge, though its reuse is still restricted, for example by ‘All Rights Reserved’ copyright. (source)
  • Libre OA – the paper is made available under an open licence, allowing it to be shared and reused, depending on which licence is used. (source) (Libre and Gratis refer to copyright and licensing restrictions)
  • Diamond OA – a form of gold open access in which there is no author fee (APC).

Links Beyond SUSS