{"id":35952,"date":"2015-10-19T11:22:42","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T15:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=35952"},"modified":"2018-05-24T16:20:06","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T20:20:06","slug":"questions-answers-during-international-open-access-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2015\/10\/questions-answers-during-international-open-access-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions, answers during International Open Access Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

As International Open Access Week<\/a>\u00a0gets underway, librarian Elizabeth Yates is gearing up for the phone calls and e-mails.<\/p>\n

She and her colleagues at the James A. Gibson Library have been getting a lot of these lately. Researchers want to know more about the federal government\u2019s new Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The policy, effective May 1, requires government-funded researchers to make their publications freely accessible within 12 months of publication, either through an Open Access journal or via an online archive such as the Brock Digital Repository<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge shift,\u201d explains Yates, who is a scholarly communication librarian. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a traditional scholarly publishing system for around 300 years, all based on a subscription publishing model.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpen Access turns that on its head by removing the subscription cost. So it\u2019s really shaken up the scholarly publishing industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the traditional publishing system, journal articles are only available to those who can pay to subscribe to the journal, which can be very expensive for both individuals and institutions.<\/p>\n

This poses a moral dilemma for many publicly funded researchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy work focuses on neglected tropical diseases that affect impoverished populations in developing countries,\u201d says Ana Sanchez, associate professor in the Department of Health Sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cResearchers, practitioners, policy makers, working in those countries benefit greatly from the capacity to access my research free of charge to them and their institutions. Likewise, researchers in high-income countries can access my work right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the Open Access system, research papers \u201care immediately available to anybody, anywhere, with no fee to the end user,\u201d explains Yates.<\/p>\n

But Open Access poses its own challenges for researchers.<\/p>\n

Approximately one-third of the 10,000 Open Access journals charge an \u201carticle processing fee,\u201d ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.<\/p>\n

Universities may have funds available to help researchers pay these fees, but the costs can still be a concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenges are that it costs the researcher, and research dollars are constantly on the squeeze,\u201d says Veena Dwivedi, associate professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means that now in applying for grants, I\u2019ll have to make that a staple in my budgetary planning,\u201d she says, adding that, overall she does support the concept of Open Access.<\/p>\n

Some researchers are also concerned that certain Open Access journals may not have the same reputation or credibility of older, more established ones.<\/p>\n

Yates says she thinks that will change as time passes.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrestige is conferred by the researchers. So, if they want to go and develop a prestigious open access journal, they can do it. It\u2019s up to them: they\u2019re the ones who convey the prestige.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yates says she and her colleagues are happy to answer questions about Open Access and how to comply with the new policy. Contact: Elizabeth Yates, Acting Head Liaison Services\/Scholarly Communication Librarian, ext. 4469, eyates@brocku.ca<\/a><\/p>\n

The Library welcomes everyone to attend Open Access Week events including a Wikipedia Open Access Edit-a-thon, a panel discussion on copyright and Open Access, and a prize wheel. For information on Open Access Week at Brock: https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2015\/10\/open-access-week-2015-at-brock\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Register here<\/a>\u00a0for Oct. 22 Life after Access Copyright: Moving towards Open Access, 2:30-3:30 p.m., TH253 e-classroom<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As International Open Access Week gets underway, librarian Elizabeth Yates is gearing up for the phone calls and e-mails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":34962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[974,2701,3491,25,3484,609,3492],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35952"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35952"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51204,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35952\/revisions\/51204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}