Library

For a publication, resource, or initiative to be considered open access, it must be free of

• price barriers such as paywalls, subscription costs to end users, or other charges or fees that require paid access to the materials; and 
• overly restrictive copyright or licenses that severely limit sharing or (re)distribution of the materials. 

Peter Suber's Open Access Overview is an excellent introduction to this topic. For details on key issues for open access, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) provides a great overview.

The University Library actively supports open access publishing and related initiatives, including:

Library position statement on open access: In 2014 the Library Faculty Council affirmed the Library's committment to open acccess with this position statement.

There are a variety of benefits and challenges to the open access publishing model.

Some benefits

• Increased access and audience: Open access publications are freely available, giving anyone, anywhere, the ability to find, read, and share your research. Unlike traditional, subscription publications, OA resources do not charge expensive fees (paywalls) or require users to pay before they can view the content.
• Citation advantage: With more people reading your work, better access leads to increased citation rates for authors. Known as the open access citation advantage, several studies have demonstrated the value of OA. SPARC Europe maintained a list of studies that examined the OA citation advantage through 2016, but ceased that project now that this benefit is well-known.
• Research belongs to the public: In Canada, most researchers and their universities receive public funding through grants, operating budgets, salaries, and more. The research funded by public tax dollars should be available to the public, as quickly as possible. 

Some challenges

• Perceptions about rigour and quality: Misperceptions around the quality of open access publications represent a major challenge, and many continue to question whether articles published in an open access journal are of lower quality than those published in a traditional journal. The truth is that legitimate OA journals use the same quality control processes used by traditional journals, including including rigorous peer-review, editorial oversight, systems for retraction, and expectations of professional and ethical behaviour by researchers and publishers.
• Predatory publishing: This model relies on fraudulent and deceptive practices to exploit those authors seeking to publish via open access. They are profit-driven, charging authors significant fees to publish their research without providing the rigourous peer-review and editorial oversight mentioned above. Predatory publishers have recognizable characteristics, but scholars need to inform themselves and be vigilant when considering where to publish. 

Related Topics

Author Rights

In most cases, authors who publish via an open access model retain more rights over their works than when publishing under a traditional model. Open access is about distribution and making information available; it does not significantly change the production of research and does not seek to change author rights. Authors who publish via open access agree to right of use, allowing unrestricted distribution (reading, downloading, copying, sharing, storing, and printing) of the full-text work, so long as the original author is given credit. Authors may choose to license their works under open content licensing, such as Creative Commons.

To search for permissions given by publishers as part of a journal publisher's copyright transfer agreement see the Open Policy Finder tool.

Intellectual property

Open access does not change intellectual property rights. Intellectual property includes patents, copyright, trade-marks, and industrial design. These rights protect intangible subjects that are produced as a result of human creativity. Intellectual property rights mean that other people can be stopped from using the "property" and that the rights can be transferred. For information about intellectual property in Canada see the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.

Copyright

Unlike norms in traditional publishing, authors typically remain as copyright holders but allow for the general public to freely use and redistribute their work, giving credit to the author. Most journals that use an open access model ensure that works are published under the current copyright system or using a Creative Commons license.  Authors can agree to have their work publicly accessed or publicly accessed and modified. The Canadian Copyright Act is available online.