For over twenty years open access (OA) principles and practices have been adopted to enable researchers, practitioners, policy makers, industry and the public to freely access, use, share and reuse research outputs. Major funders including Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) have policies mandating open access. Although open access is neither new nor niche, the practices have evolved and there are often questions around quality, cost and options. So, let’s expose and bust some common open access myths.
Myth 1 – Open access means low quality
False
Most scholarly journals, whether open access or subscription based, are peer-reviewed. Look for the journal’s membership to Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) or check the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) trusted list for peer review status. Journal rankings should always be used in balance with other metrics. Among the top 100 journals ranked by Journal Impact Factor, over 70 are hybrid open access and 13 are fully (gold) open access, including highly respected journals such as Lancet, Nature, Cell, and Science.
In addition, Griffith University’s open access read and publish agreements include over 3700 Q1 and 2000 Q2 ranked journals.
Myth 2 – Open access is expensive
No, it doesn’t have to be.
Griffith researchers and higher degree research candidates can use two pathways for free open access publishing:
- Deposit an author accepted manuscript of their published subscription article in Griffith Research Online (GRO) repository, known as green option access.
- Find and submit to a hybrid open access journal via Griffith’s read and publish agreements at no cost to you. Alternatively, you can use a portion of your external funding towards paying an article processing charge (APC) for a gold open access journal.
Myth 3 – I lose my copyright of open access articles
Incorrect
Copyright is generally retained by the author/s of an open access article, with the publisher granted a licence such as Creative Commons Attribution licence to publish the article. Users are provided a similar licence to share, reuse and in some cases adapt the work as long as attribution to the original authors is provided.
Myth 4 – There is no benefit to me
Incorrect
Publishing open access has many benefits. Your work will be more discoverable and reachable, which can translate to higher usage, downloads and citations. You will also benefit from greater collaboration opportunities, which will create increased trust in science and new opportunities for innovation and further research. Additionally, your research can be applied by practitioners, influence policy and comply with funding rules.
Myth 5 – Open access is only possible via publishing in open access journals
Not true
Green open access, via GRO repository, allows you to archive a copy of your post-peer reviewed, accepted manuscript from a subscription journal. The GRO team check if a journal has an embargo period and lift these when reached. This method also complies with ARC grant mandates for open access (if the embargo period for the journal is 12 months or less). Consider an author addendum to ensure you retain the right to deposit in GRO.
