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Open Access Publishing : What is Open Access (OA)?

Definition

According to the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition - Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the right to use these articles fully in the digital environment.

Advancing OA publishing at WFUSM

The WFUSM Carpenter Library is aiming to promote broad public access to the scholarly work of Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Publishing open access will improve dissemination, increase visibility, and accelerate discovery of knowledge. For any questions related to open access publishing, agreements, and discounts, please contact Dianne Johnson.

What is Open Access?

Open Access is a form of publishing in which information is made available to readers at no cost. Open access eliminates barriers to access and provides an opportunity for academic research or scholarly content to reach and influence a broader audience. Research is made freely available online for anyone across the world to read and cite. Open access provides many opportunities for new and innovative developments in research and publishing. 

Why publish Open Access? 

Research that is published open access is made available across the world which increases visibility. Increased visibility can contribute to increased readership and citation of your work. This exposure can positively influence your career and funding opportunities. Open access can more greatly influence research breakthroughs, improve research outcomes, and increase the chances of research being put into action. 

What are your publishing options?

Some OA publishing models include Full Gold, Hybrid Gold, and Green. Full Gold OA makes the final published article permanently free upon publication for readers to access under a Creative Commons license. Hybrid Gold OA articles are published in subscription journals and authors choose to make their article Open Access. Green OA makes the article freely available in a repository and an embargo period may be applied by the publisher.

Carpenter Library has worked to secure open access publishing opportunities for the institution. Visit the OA Opportunities at WFUSM tab in this guide for more information about each opportunity. 

Fees and funding?

Authors typically incur publishing charges from the publisher and many times those fees are high dollar. In publishing OA, there are options available to assist authors with article publishing or processing charges (APC). At this time the library does not have a fund to cover publishing costs for authors. However, we have partnered with publishing groups to afford researchers the opportunity to publish their work open access in both fully open and hybrid journals at little or no cost to the author.

Compliance? Copyright?

Many authors are required to publish their research open access by their funder or institution. Publishing OA in a journal or book enables researchers to comply with these requirements.

Open access is as much about enabling re-use as it is about making material freely available to the reader. Open access articles should be made available using some form of licensing where the author can share open access content such as a Creative Commons (CC) License. A CC license will enable authors to dictate how others use and build upon your published work. Licensing advice can be provided by the publishing company you choose to publish you open access work with.

Librarian

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Dianne Johnson
she/her/hers
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Contact:
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Coy C. Carpenter Library
336-716-3690

General Services

Classes - classes about searching, databases, citation management software and library resources.

Covidence Account Request- request invite to join institutional account (more information)

Endnote - citation management software.

Instruction - request a group or one-on-one session with a librarian.

Literature Search - request librarian search assistance

Notary Services -  contact Jenny Little or call (336) 713-7100

Publishing assistance - help finding a journal, publishing options and metrics.

Purchase recommendation - suggest a book, journal or resource for the Library to purchase.

Systematic Review- request librarian search assistance

Submit an ILL - log in to Illiad for Interlibrary Loan requests.

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