Why publish open access?

Overview

Exercises: 30 min

What is Open Access

Open Access means that readers have free, unrestricted access to published research outputs.

Why choose Open Access?

Enumerating the benefits 5 min

In small groups, try to think of reasons people publish academic work. In what ways might open access help achieve these goals? Using the collaborative notes document, jot down any ideas you come up with, so that we have an overall list at the end.

Ideas

Some reasons that are commonly cited are:

• We publish because we want people to know what we’ve done
• We want people to be able to build on our work
• We want to get credit for our work
• Open Access publishing is a requirement for advancing our careers
• Open Access is required by our university, funder, etc.
• We want people outside academia to access our work (policy makers, charities, industry, etc.)

Considering the concerns 5 min

In the same groups, try to think of reasons people might hesitate to publish their work openly. Again, use the collaborative notes document to jot down any ideas you come up with.

Ideas

Some reasons that are commonly cited are:

• People might find mistakes in my work
• People might misunderstand my work
• It takes time to write papers in a way that is suitable for people outside my field to understand
• Publishing open access is too expensive
• People could use my work for purposes I don’t agree with
• I worked hard to collect these data and I don’t want non-academics to benefit from my work
• I want to start a business based on my work and I want to keep an advantage over other companies

Your experiences 10 min

Now we have listed some benefits and concerns of open access publishing, go around your small group and have each group member identify two items that they have experience with. You can choose a benefit and a concern, or two benefits or even two concerns. For each one, share your experience of it with your colleagues. If you have time, add a brief note about your experience to the collaborative notes document, but the focus should be on sharing with your colleagues and listening to what they have to say.

Addressing concerns 10 min

We have a list of concerns that people in your workshops might have. It’s helpful to be able to provide some perspective on those concerns – we want to acknowledge that publishing openly can be frightening or difficult, but highlight that it is worth doing anyway!

Again, in your group, choose two of the concerns. If they are concerns you have or have had yourself, that’s ideal, but they could also be ones that you just find interesting. Go around the group, discussing each person’s concerns. Try to think of reasons why the concern should not hold you back from open access publishing. If you can’t think of anything, try asking the larger group or one of the workshop instructors or helpers.

Remember, it’s not wrong to have concerns! We believe that open access publishing is important and that the benefits outweigh the concerns, and we’d like to help you understand why and give you any encouragement you need.

Key Points

• Open access means your work can be more widely read

• Greater scrutiny from more experts

• Enables researchers from the global South to contribute more easily

• Helps shape academic publishing towards a commons-based community