News & Blog

2021 marks the 14th year for Open Access Week — a global event that celebrates the Open Access (OA) movement. Here at UCF Libraries, we will be celebrating the week by sharing information about open access resources and tools that can be used by researchers year-round. From UCF’s institutional repository, STARS, to support for locating and using open educational resources, there are many different ways the Libraries can assist you with open access resources. Throughout the week, we’ll share blog posts and social media posts too, so stay tuned!

What is Open Access (OA)?

“Open Access” is a term used to describe a reform movement that aims to make scholarly literature freely available on the web and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. It can also describe an item itself. For example, if a journal article is Open Access, then that means it is available for free access and, typically, unrestricted non-commercial use.

How is Open Access Different from Traditional Publishing?

To publish something “Open Access” is in contrast to traditional publishing. Where a traditional publisher of academic journals charges money to read those journal articles, an Open Access academic journal is free to read and access online.

However, those interested in publishing will want to consider a variety of factors before deciding if OA is right for them. For instance, there may be other costs associated with publishing, such as Article Processing Charges — a fee charged to authors to make their work accessible in some Open Access journals. In addition, researchers will want to explore strategies for discerning reliable publishers and considerations for grant funding requirements.

Is Open Access Only for Academic Journal Articles?

Open Access does not just apply to academic journal articles. Books, textbooks, data-sets, and other works can also be Open Access. For more information about open access resources, visit our guide: https://guides.ucf.edu/OA/home.

Follow us all week to learn about how Open Access. Meanwhile, check out the official Open Access Week website (http://www.openaccessweek.org/) and UCF Libraries’ Office of Scholarly Communication website for more information (https://library.ucf.edu/about/departments/scholarly-communication/).

For additional information or to answer any questions please contact Sarah Norris, Scholarly Communication Librarian by email at: sarah.norris@ucf.edu.

This year’s Open Access Week celebration is coming to a close. We hope that you have enjoyed following along with UCF Libraries’ blog posts, social media posts, and other activities that highlighted the Open Access (OA) movement. If you missed any of our efforts, you can always revisit them by visiting the Libraries’ blog or by checking out the Open Access Week archives in STARS, UCF’s institutional repository.

This blog post is written by Humanities Librarian, John Venecek.

The idea of the library as a site of social justice is a long-standing interest of mine. I’ve explored this issue by developing exhibits, programming, and other events designed to shed light on social justice issues. As a subject librarian, I seek to build diverse and inclusive collections in the humanities including art, literature, Africana, and Latin American studies. I advocate for increasing the equity of and access to scholarship and I’m an active promoter of Open Education Resources (OERs) and textbook affordability initiatives. None of this is unique to me. Most librarians participate in these types of activities without considering themselves activists per se. They’re simply doing what librarians do every day: Promoting diversity, inclusion, equity, and access in the most seamless, transparent ways possible.

Hello, UCF Grad Students and Postdoctoral Scholars! Do you have an interest in getting published in an Open Access (OA) journal but don’t know much about how it all works? Well, look no further. Here is a brief background on publishing Open Access and specifically Article Processing Charges (APCs).

Perhaps in no other year has the importance of freely open and accessible information been more evident than in 2020.  The mid-March outbreaks of COVID-19 prompted stay-at-home orders and quarantines throughout the nation, and Americans were sequestered to their homes for a quarantine that some have yet to escape. When universities, libraries, businesses and laboratories across the country closed their doors, the availability of Open Access documents and data helped us maintain some semblance of our daily routine, and a little of our sanity. 

As we’ll explore in this blog post, Open Access (OA) — the free and unfettered access to research — is important to each of us whether it’s in the classroom or broadly in society through everyday things and important research. In particular, we’ll highlight how the public health crisis has illustrated the importance of Open Access in all aspects of our lives. 

• Classroom.  When faculty and students suddenly switched to online classes mid-semester, several publishers and database vendors unlocked large collections of eBooks, journal titles, textbooks and streaming videos to be freely available to students and faculty researchers who had lost access to physical resources, like books, in libraries. PBS modified their daytime broadcasting schedule to provide free lessons for preK-12 students learning at home, and many agencies put content online for use in the classroom. Faculty at colleges and universities utilized open educational resources and other Open Access research to provide affordable and freely accessible course materials to their students. 
• Research.  As scientists work for a cure for COVID-19, publishers, organizations, and agencies around the globe have made large collections of coronavirus-related scholarship Open Access. This helps to level the playing field for underfunded schools and research institutes that can’t afford high-cost subscriptions. In addition, it helps provide timely and free access to the latest research, so that researchers can work together to better understand COVID-19, collaborate on new innovations, and develop vaccines. 
• Society.  When supplies ran low, hospitals were able to use Open Access programs to 3D print face shields and other PPE.  Newspapers made COVID-19-related stories Open Access so that people who could not afford subscriptions could stay abreast of developments.  Parks, museums, and zoos offered virtual tours, and musicians performed from their living rooms, opening their homes to people who couldn’t leave theirs. 

While we couldn’t possibly explore every single aspect of Open Access as it relates to COVID-19, we hope that these examples illustrate how providing free access to anyone, anywhere in the world can be beneficial to all — whether it’s related to the public health crisis or providing access to important research and innovations in everyday life. 

To learn more about the Open Access movement, its benefits, and ways you can engage in OA publishing and research, visit the UCF Libraries’ Office of Scholarly Communication website for more information or contact Sarah Norris, Scholarly Communication Librarian at sarah.norris@ucf.edu.