Open Access for researchers: mandates, recommendations, strengths... What do you need to know?

Abstract

The Open Access movement was born in the late 90s with the idea of promoting free access to scientific literature, so that researchers and academics can share their knowledge and keep the copyright of their own publications. Although in some fields OA movement has been very successful, in others, traditional publishing is still the standard. Over time, research funding agencies begun to adopt policies to ensure that research outcomes return to the researchers’ community and developed mandates to oblige researchers to make their publications freely accessible. To achieve this it becomes necessary for researchers to know some aspects to know some issues about OA both, before and after publication. There are two ways autos can provide OA: by publishing in OA journals or in regular journals with OA options (Golden Open Access) or by archiving their works by themselves or by librarians or administrators (Green Open Access). With the first option articles are freely available immediately upon publication, but authors have to pay a fee and sometimes could be expensive. The second option implies no additional charges but requires an extra effort, time and also knowledge in order to archive the documents (find the right repository, publishers’ copyright policies, embargo periods…). In this context, the CNIC Library and Information Service has developed an assessment program, in order to support the researchers to fulfill the funding bodies mandate requirements.