Open Access is about changing the way scholars share their work with the world.
Open Access means making research available online to the public to read and use free of charge and with as few restrictions as possible. Authors participating in open access, whether through self-archiving in an institutional repository or publishing in open access journals, often retain more rights to their work than those publishing in fee-based journals and enjoy the benefits of greater distribution to a more diverse audience. The public benefits from having access to the best and most up-to-date information available, including medical research and scientific discoveries.
In 2002, the Budapest Open Access Initiative defined open access as the "world-wide electronic distribution of the peer-reviewed journal literature, completely free and unrestricted access to it by all scientists, scholars, teachers, students, and other curious minds." Since then, the concept of open access has grown to include similarly free and unrestricted access to textbooks, data, and other scholarly and academic resources.
For more information, see the list of additional resources below.
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Written content on a narrow subject and published in a periodical or website. In some contexts, academics may use article as a shortened form of journal article.
See also:
A detailed list of resources cited in an article, book, or other publication. Also called a List of References.
A label of letters and/or numbers that tell you where the resource can be found in the library. Call numbers are displayed on print books and physical resources and correspond with a topic or subject area.
Well-regarded review process used by some academic journals. Relevant experts review articles for quality and originality before publication. Articles reviewed using this process are called peer reviewed articles. Less often, these articles are called refereed articles.
A search setting that removes search results based on source attributes. Limiters vary by database but often include publication date, material type, and language. Also called: filter or facet.
A paper written to fulfill requirements for a degree containing original research on a narrow topic. Also called a thesis.
A searchable collection of similar items. Library databases include resources for research. Examples include: a newspaper database, such as Access World News, or a humanities scholarly journal database, such as JSTOR.
A book or article written by academic researchers and published by an academic press or journal. Scholarly sources contain original research and commentary.