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Sharing Your Research

The guide is to educate graduate students and early career research on publishing, copyright, and impact metrics.

Introduction to Open Access

What is Open Access?

Open Access (OA) is scholarly literature that is free to read and often has various re-use rights.

Open Access is entirely compatible with and insists on upholding standards of peer review, copyright, quality, prestige, and research impact. As an author Open Access provides you with a larger potential audience and citation advantage.

The Benefits of Open Access:

  • Open Access publications have proven potential for more citations
  • Research is more discoverable
  • Rapid publication
  • Authors keep their copyright
  • Taxpayers get access to tax-funded research
  • Helps to eliminate inequalities in access to research

The Impact of Open Access


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Open Access Myths

Myth #1: Publishing Open Access is the only Open Access
You can participate in Open Access in two ways: publishing Open Access or archiving your research. 

Myth #2: You're paying to publish
Open Access journals operate on a different funding model. It is not vanity publishing. The "article processing charge" business model shifts the cost and makes the content available to everyone.

Myth #3: All Open Access journals charge fees
The majority of Open Access journals do not charge fees. 60% of journals in the Directory of Open Access Journals do not charge an article processing charge to the author. 

Myth #4: Open Access journals are low in quality
Open Access journals have the same standards of peer review, copyright, quality, prestige, and research impact.