Open Access

Open Access

What is Open Access?

Open Access (OA) is a mechanism by which research outputs are distributed online, free of cost or other access barriers.

The current scholarship is behind a pay-wall and only those who can afford access can truly contribute to moving knowledge of a subject forward. Non-Open Access Academic journals can be very expensive, making scholarly research a costly undertaking for someone with a limited research budget. Open Access refers to the practice of making peer-reviewed scholarly research and literature freely available online to anyone interested in reading it.

The aim of Open Access publishing is to make research information freely available on the Internet. A very important advantage of OA literature lies in spreading quickly around the world. OA publications are online publications available for:

  • reading
  • downloading
  • copying
  • spreading
  • printing
  • referencing
  • publishing
  • reuse.
Who benefit from open access?
 
Authors                     
The authors can publish their works for a very wide audience
   
Readers
The readers have can freely access research information
Education and research
Open access improves the accessibility of research information; and researchers and universities have the chance to spread their information to a wide audience.
Libraries
Open access removes the financial issues of accessing expensive journals
Journals
The readership of the journals increases
Government, sponsors, citizens
The financed research information becomes available to all citizens.
 
 

 

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