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Open Access Guide: Benefits of Open Access

What are the benefits of Open Access?

  • Increases visibility of research outputs

  • Enables easy access to scholarly research material

  • Increases usage of research outputs

  • Results in greater research impact

  • Increases citation rates

  • Increases author profile

  • Increases CDU's general visibility and academic reputation which can translate into tangible benefits such as increased funding

  • Breaks down barriers between fields

  • Allows text mining of literature and data

  • Allows stable, long-term archiving preserving it for the future

 

 

Citation Impact

The impact of making material accessible via open access is another point for consideration.

Journal Impact factors

  • Impact Factors vary in both traditional and OA journals.
  • As OA journals tend to be newer they may not have an Impact Factor.
  • Impact Factors also tend to be lower in newer journals.
  • Some OA journals are amongst the highest-ranked in their discipline e.g. PLoS Biology and PLoS Pathogens

Maximise citation potential

  • Limiting to subscription-only access reduces the number of potential readers.
  • Making material available via open access may increase the number of citations.
  • The level of advantage may vary between disciplines.
  • Publishing in an open access journal, or depositing a copy into espace broadens the reach and potential impact of the publications.

Courtesy of Curtin University Library

What can you do at CDU?

 

As an Author what can you do to support Open Access?

  • Let colleagues know that publishing in an Open Access peer reviewed journal gives them more reach for their research.
  • Submit your research articles to OA journals.
  • Deposit your work(s) in the open access repository, Charles Darwin University's Research Webportal
  • Think before signing over your Rights to the publisher.

What can you do to promote Open Access?

  • Submit your research articles to OA journals, when there are appropriate OA journals in your field.
  • Deposit your preprints in a Repository.
  • Deposit your post prints in the Repository.
  • Deposit your data files in a Repository along with the articles built on them.
  • When asked to referee a paper or serve on the editorial board for an OA journal, accept the invitation.
  • Work with your professional societies to make sure they understand OA. Persuade the organisation to make its own journals OA, endorse OA for other journals in the field, and support OA eprint archiving by all scholars in the field.
  • Write opinion pieces (articles, journal editorials, letters to the editor, discussion forum postings) advancing the cause of OA.
  • Educate the next generation of scientists and scholars about OA.

Adapted from: Suber, P 2008. What faculty can do to promote open access. https://tinyurl.com/ysays4j2

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