The standard process of academic publishing is pretty predictable: the researcher develops their idea and conducts a study, submits their article to their dream journal, gets rejected, makes edits and incorporates feedback to their article, and sends it to the next journal until someone says yes– and then they start the process all over again. This model relies on free labor from authors, which is then sold to libraries and individual subscribers and is what most scholars are used to.
Yet, emerging trends in academic publishing show a more dynamic process and utilizing open access publishing gives authors more autonomy. The open access movement flips the preexisting norms of scholarly publishing, allowing for the sharing and re-purposing of knowledge as freely available online resources with few restrictions on use– enabling the exchange of information without relying on the exploitation of scholars by publishers.
This approach leads us to one of the greatest advantages of open access publishing– it increases academic articles' visibility, reuse, citations, and impact. OA also allows for your research to be used immediately in teaching as an open educational resource. This allows for new ideas to spread rapidly and widely, which sets off further research studies and catalyzes knowledge. And simply, it allows for more people to read your research because finances are not an obstacle.
Open access does not mean you will give away your copyright as the author. However, this is a common practice when publishing in traditional closed journals. When you agree to publish with a specific journal, you sign a publication agreement that transfers most, if not all, of the copyright to the publisher. However, most OA publications apply one of the six Creative Commons licenses, allowing the owner to retain their copyright while telling the reader precisely what they can do with this work.
But what if you already published your article?
In this case, things can get trickier, but you can flip your work to open access and still reap all the rewards. The answer will depend on the publication agreement you signed and whether it allows you to archive and share your work through an institutional or disciplinary repository, or even on your own website. Most publication agreements do allow for self-archiving some version of your article, making your work more widely available. When self-archiving, it is essential to understand the policies that your journal has in place. SHERPA/RoMEO is an excellent resource for searching the default self-archiving policies of over 22,000 journals so that you can self-archive your article under your publishing agreement.
Does publishing OA devalue my work?
No! OA publishing has the same production and peer review standards as closed journals. Similar to traditional journal publishing, there are likely well-known OA journals in any given field. There is a range of publication quality, and you should always be critical of any publication outlet– whether OA or not. The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, Committee on Publication Ethics, and Directory of Open Access Journals are all excellent resources for evaluating the quality of OA publications. Many misconceptions conflate academic rigor with high monetary cost, but free-to-read does not necessarily mean the quality is less. Scholarly databases will still index your work and your bibliometrics will likely increase because it will just be easier for the reader to access your work.
As an author, stepping back and reminding yourself why you are doing this work is essential. Most of us went into academia because we were curious. We enjoy asking questions, researching, and finding an answer– or getting closer to finding the answer. Publishing open access allows more people to read your work. It contributes to a movement that allows for broader dissemination of knowledge, inspiring fellow scholars and creating more innovation.
