Scholarly Impact 5-Day Challenge

Open Access is a way of publishing that makes research available to the public without subscription or other costs. Open access publishing has several benefits that can help extend your scholarly reach and impact.

Open Access publishing...

• Expands your readership,
• Increases your citations, and
• Circulates your research on social media.

Today, you'll explore open access publishing opportunities in your field.

Find an Open Access Journal

You can search the Directory of Open Access Journals for a journal publication in your discipline.

Find an Open Access Book

Looking for a book? You can search the Directory of Open Access Books for a monograph in your discipline. Interested in textbooks to teach with? Try the Open Textbook Library.

Find Open Access Works in Repositories

Looking for articles, posters, conference proceedings, and more? You can start by searching the Directory of Open Access Repositories for your works in your discipline.

You might also want to start with a discipline specific repository:

• PubMed Central
• ArXiv
• bioRxiv
• PsycArxiv
• SocArxiv

Looking for open works a little closer to home? Check out OpenEmory, Emory's Institutional Repository, or SMARTech from Georgia Tech.

Types of Open Access Publishing

There are three ways to make your work available openly.

   Gold Open Access

When you publish an article in a journal that makes all articles openly available immediately, you are publishing through the Gold Open Access route.

   Hybrid Open Access

When you publish in a traditional journal but can pay an additional fee to make your article open access immediately, you are publishing through the Hybrid Open Access route.

   Green Open Access

When you publish in a traditional journal and then upload a copy of your article to your personal website or institutional repository, you are publishing through the Green Open Access route.

One main difference between open access and traditional publishing: the payment model.

Traditional journals cover the costs of publication through subscriptions or one-off fees. Open access journals often flip that model. The cost of publication is covered through Article Processing Charges (APCs). Generally, APC payment is expected from the author* at the time of publication.

So how do you cover the cost?

• If your research is grant funded, you can often budget for your open access publishing fees. For example, the NIH and NSF, allow you to budget for open access publication costs in your grant application.
• If you don't have access to discretionary or grant funds, you can apply for assistance through the Emory Libraries' Open Access Publishing Fund.

*Note: Not all Open Access Publishers charge an APC. For example, The Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation charges no fees to authors or readers. And many open access publishers who do charge APCs have established fee assistance or waiver programs.