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Open Access

What is OA?

Open access (OA) allows for free and immediate online access to scholarly works that anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or share. OA differs from traditional pay-to-read subscription models that are traditionally paid for by libraries.

OA publishing comes with several advantages: it removes access barriers for the research community and beyond, and it also gives the authors more exposure and a wider reach. Authors retain their intellectual property rights, and they may choose to publish under a Creative Commons license that specifies how readers may use their articles.

A cover shows the title "HowOpenIsIt? Open Access Spectrum" with an image of a colorful radial ball with lines coming out from the center.Open access can be a complex issue, and the terminology can be confusing. SPARC, PLOS, and OASPA have created a guide for evaluating the openness of journals called HowOpenIsIt? The guide shows the spectrum of openness on a range of components:

  • readership
  • reuse
  • copyright
  • posting
  • machine readability

Elon University Agreements

We are delighted to announce that through Belk Library, Elon University has entered agreements that enables researchers at Elon to publish their articles open access (OA) with the following publishers:

Read how one Elon faculty member benefitted from the library's OA agreement.

Open Access Explained! by PhD Comic