This work includes content from the CC BY 4.0 licensed Library Guide Open Access Publishing from Cornell University Library and the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licensed Open Access guide from the University of Arizona Libraries, © 2024 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of The University of Arizona. This work is subsequently licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Other institutional content is cited within.
What is Open Access? via Cornell University Library, CC BY 4.0
Open access (OA) refers to freely available, digital, online information. Open access scholarly literature is free of charge and often carries less restrictive copyright and licensing barriers than traditionally published works, for both the users and the authors.
While OA is a newer form of scholarly publishing, many OA journals comply with well-established peer-review processes and maintain high publishing standards. For more information, see Peter Suber's overview of Open Access.
Open Access Explained
A 2012 explanation of Open Access from Piled Higher and Deeper (PHD) Comics. Runtime is 8:23.
What is open access? Nick Shockey and Jonathan Eisen take us through the world of open access publishing and explain just what it's all about. Make sure to watch it in HD and Fullscreen!
Why Open Access Matters
By reducing barriers to reading, discovery and sharing, Open Access fuels innovation through knowledge transfer. Wider sharing of scientific discoveries and insights accelerates changes, inventions, treatments, and solutions that benefit the world.
Additional resources on the importance of open:
UNESCO’s Policy Guidelines for the Development and Promotion of Open Access
Open Access Publication Models defined:
While the word "free" implies that the information does not cost anything to access, remember that OA publishing still often involves a cost to the author to publish the work.
More Terms / Acronyms Defined:
More Resources:
The State of OA: A Large-scale Analysis of the Prevalence and Impact of Open Access Articles (Piwowar, Priem, Lariviere, et al.; 2018)