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Open Science Online Course

Introduction to open access publishing

What is open access publishing?

Open access (OA) publishing means free dissemination of scientific information by publishing a research paper or article on the Internet and granting the scientific community and the general public rights to read, copy, print and link to the entire publication.

Publishing your research results openly has many benefits for both you and the research community:

  • More visibility for your research
  • Increases the chance of being cited
  • Better quality of research through transparency
  • Increased economic and social impact
  • Saves resources by decreasing the need to rediscover the results already discovered elsewhere
  • General public can access scientific results more easily

The history behind open access: video

Open access: why and how

The open access movement originated as a response to both the digitization of scientific publishing and the rapid increase in journal prices. The video below explains the history of academic publishing from the costly and complicated process of publishing papers to the current trend of distributing scientific knowledge as openly as possible.

Myths about open access: video

Six common myths around open access publishing

Due to various open access myths, a lot of researchers and authors have reservations about publishing in open access journals and making their work freely available online. Such misconceptions about open access publishing could prevent them from opting for it. This video presents the six most common myths about open access publishing and resolves these misunderstandings for you.