Q1:What is Open Access?

Open Access is....
If an article is "Open Access" it means that it can be freely accessed by anyone in the world using an internet connection. This means that the potential readership of Open Access articles is far, far greater than that for articles where the full-text is restricted to subscribers. Evidence shows that making research material Open Access increases the number of readers and significantly increases citations to the article - in some fields increasing citations by 300%.

What Open Access is not
It is important to point out that Open Access does not affect peer-review; articles are peer-reviewed and published in journals in the normal way. There is no suggestion that authors should use repositories instead of journals. Open Access repositories supplement and do not replace journals. Some authors have feared that wider availability will increase plagiarism: in fact, if anything, Open Access serves to reduce plagiarism. When material is freely available the chance that plagiarism is recognised and exposed is that much higher.

Q2:Why Open Access?

Wider access to your work.
Macquarie University ResearchOnline is indexed by Google and other search engines; this means your work is more likely to be discovered.

• For journal articles, the repository record will include a link to the published version of the article on the journal's website.
• Anyone with a personal or institutional subscription to the journal will be able to access the published version via this link.
• However, to reach the widest possible audience, we also need to have a copy of your 'accepted manuscript' version in Macquarie University ResearchOnline. In most cases, this version can be made publicly accessible via the repository record.

Enhanced research impact.
When your work reaches a wider audience, it often leads to an increase in citations.

Safe, convenient long-term storage.
Depositing copies of your research outputs in Macquarie University ResearchOnline means you can access the files from anywhere with Internet access.

Showcase for Macquarie research output.
Presently, Macquarie University research outputs are disseminated via thousands of different publications, conference websites and other outlets. Macquarie University ResearchOnline provides an opportunity to create a valuable, publicly accessible showcase for our work.

Please Note: Macquarie University's Open Access policy approved by the University Council in August 2008 will apply to all research or scholarly manuscripts in ResearchOnline written while the author is a staff member of Macquarie University, except for: those outputs completed before the adoption of the policy, and those for which the author has entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement.

Q3:What are Open Access Journals?

An alternate way of providing Open Access is to publish in an Open Access Journal. These journals make their articles available for free through charging for the publication services before publication, rather than after publication through subscriptions. Open Access publication charges can be often included within the costs of research funding, so the money for access comes through the research funder, rather than through the library budget. Of course, the initial source of the money is often the same (from government funding), but the economics of this model means that the overall cost is lower.

There are a growing number of Open Access Journals, with a journal available in most disciplines. A list of the ones currently available is provided by the Directory of open access journals (This service covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals).
Some publishers are now experimenting with hybrid journals, where the subscription version is still sold, but for a supplement - typically around $3000 each - an articles can then be made freely available. It has been noted that far from reducing costs, this increases the overall cost of publication. However, while the Open Access model catches on, this is one way that articles can be made freely available.

Macquarie University is already involved in publishing open access journals, for example, SCAN

Q4:What is the situation for Conference papers?

The current situation with conference papers is not clearly defined. Most conferences will allow the author to retain copyright. In these cases, authors are free to archive copies of their papers on their personal or institutional website.

For some conferences where the conferences proceedings are being published commercially, the author is requested to sign copyright to the relevant publisher. The publisher's copyright conditions would need to be checked before an author is able to archive a copy of the conference paper.

Q5:What is the situation for Books and Book Chapters?

Most publishers hold the copyright for their books and do not allow authors to archive copies of the author's version of the manuscript. Publishers are increasingly producing electronic versions of their books, and providing access to them either individually or as part of collection.

For additional FAQs relating to ResearchOnline see ResearchOnline FAQs