1.) Is the work is openly licensed?
2.) Is the publisher reputable/well-known?
3.) Are the author/s affiliated with a University, Research Center, or College? Can you confirm that affiliation online? Have they published other books and articles in the same subject area?
4.) Where is the publisher located? Are the publisher and author in the same country? (OCC students should focus on U.S. publications.)
5.) Does the editorial board seem reputable? Are each of them affiliated with a University, Research Center, or College? Are they experts in the field?
The Creative Commons defines Open Access literature as "digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. Open access stands in contrast to the existing 'closed' system for communicating scientific and scholarly research."
Free is not equal to Open
“Free” means that there is no fee associated with accessing materials. However, freely available does not mean that users may also reuse, modify, or share the materials. When a resource is Open users know they can reuse and share the resource, as long as they honor the terms of the creator. These terms are expressed through open licenses which are facilitated by the Creative Commons.
Open Licenses
Readers should be able to easily find the license statement on a work, either through a linked icon, text, or both:
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Title of work. Copyright © date by Author is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. |
Read about all of the Creative Commons licenses here: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/
Definitions
SPARC Open Access
Creative Commons Open Access
OAN Open Access Primers
Articles & Books about Open Access
Alff, B. (2020, November 6) I published a fake paper in a 'peer reviewed' journal. Undark. https://undark.org/2020/11/26/fake-paper-predatory-journal/
Brunsting, K., Harrington, C., & Scott, R.E. (2023) Open access literature in libraries: Principles and practices. Chicago: ALA Editions. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Chase, D. & Haugh, D. (2020) Open praxis, open access: Digital scholarship in action. Chicago: ALA Editions. EBSCO eBook Academic Collection.
Grudniewicz, A., Moher, D., Cobey, K. D., Bryson, G. L., Cukier, S., Allen, K., ... & Ciro, J. B. (2019). Predatory journals: no definition, no defence. Science (576)7786. 210-212. Gale Academic OneFile.
Schopfel, J. & Herb, U, (2018) Open divide: Critical studies on open access. Library Juice: Sacramento, CA. EBSCO eBook Academic Collection.
University of Oregon Department of Open Research. (2020). Benefits of open access. https://library.uoregon.edu/department-of-open-research/benefits-open-access
Open materials are cited just like all other scholarly resources. Always include the DOI (digital object identifier) when available.