~ Open access (Open Access, OA) means free unlimited online access to scientific literature and professional information, especially the full texts of scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals, but also monographs and other valuable information resources.
~ If you are interested in the issue of open access, here is an overview of interesting sources related to the topic.
This is an unlimited online access, which is free for users and without most of copyright and licensing restrictions. Opens an access to publications that are otherwise traditionally made available only for a fee (by subscription, license, pay-per-view, etc.), in particular to journal articles, published in literature mediated by large producers and publishers, who led recently to a constant increase of prices for access to current scientific articles (information) and consequently also the limited or delayed sharing the latest knowledge (see The Cost of Knowledge).
Open access is an alternative to the traditional publication process, both models, however, stands in direct opposition. Open access enhances distribution of scientific knowledge, without interfering with dominant scientific journal publishers. For the scientific community, OA is an adequate approach to the dissemination of knowledge in the virtual environment of today's Internet.
What OA brings?
- Access to quality professional information for free anywhere
- Faster sharing the latest knowledge and efficiency of scientific communication
- Visibility, increased use and greater outreach of scientific publications
- Increase the impact of publications funded by grants or public funds
- Presentation and visibility of scientific results and overall increase of the university prestige
How can help library/university?
- Provide information about OA
- Recommend OA journals in the field
- Check the reputation and validity OA journal or conference
- Find out the publisher attitude towards OA
- Convey the storage of the article in a repository (eg. Repository CTU)
The most significant open access initiatives
The spread of open access contributes a number of international initiatives, including major initiatives include the following:
Budapest OA Initiative
(Budapest Open Access Initiative , BOAI) in February 2002 defines open access as a "free availability on the public internet, allowing any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts ..." and recommends two main possible means of making the science information (particularly peer-reviewed scientific articles) freely available: through self-archiving of published articles in digital repositories and through publishing in open access journals.
Bedhesda Statement on Open Access Publishing
(Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing ) from June 2003 was the result of a meeting on open access held by Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Working groups representing endowment organizations, libraries, publishers, scientists, scientific institutions expressed positive attitude towards the open access concept. Declaration considers publications freely available in case, the authors and copyright holders grant to each user free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, including a license for the use of distribution work, and that the full version of research will be saved to do any of the online repositories, which promotes academic institution, scientific society, government agency, etc., supporting open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability term archiving.
Berlin Declaration
(Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities ) from October 2003 builds on two previous initiatives and emphasizes the importance of wide and fast accessibility of knowledge not only traditional way, but especially through the Internet. Open access is defined as any available source of human knowledge and cultural heritage, which has been acknowledged by the scientific community.
European Union
The European Union declared OA as one of its six initiatives within the Science in Society program. The European Commission joined the idea of OA by the pilot program Open Access Pilot in 7FP , which furthers the idea of open access to research results, supported by funds from the 7Framework Programme.
Recipients of subsidies from seven science fields are expected to deposit reviewed article or its final version into online repository and ensure the open access to that article during 6 to 12 month from the date of issue (different time embargo corresponds to the obsolescence of information in each sciences).
The program build on OA Pilot in 7FP is the project OpenAIRE which has to provide supportive information infrastructure for the implementation of the pilot program. Each of participating countries has to create the project point of contact for communications between the project partners and information sharing at the national level.
Horizon2020 is the 8Framework Programme funding research, technological development, and innovation. The programme's name has been modified to "Framework Programme for Research and Innovation". Horizon 2020 provides grants to research and innovation projects through open and competitive calls for proposals. Legal entities from any country are eligible to submit project proposals to these calls.