Editor’s Note: Please join us in welcoming Brianna Calomino, Digital Projects Librarian at the University of Calgary, as a new First Year Academic Librarian Experience blogger for the 2024-2025 year here at ACRLog.
As International Open Access Week 2024 comes to a close, I’m faced again with reflections on why switching to Open Access (OA) is such an uphill battle. Why is the idea of free access to research such a controversial topic? This year, I discovered that one of the primary challenges stems from misinformation.
For those who aren’t aware, OA is the free, immediate, online availability of research outputs coupled with the rights to use these materials with little or no restrictions in a digital environment. In other words, it’s the ability for anyone (both within and without the academic community) to access research, anywhere, without the restrictions of subscription costs or other paywalls. To me, OA helps to combat the high costs of higher education, making innovative knowledge accessible to those of diverse backgrounds with a wide variety of needs. It takes down the ivory towers of academia, bringing publicly funded research back to the public. But there are further benefits beyond my “it’s just the right thing to do!” soapbox. For researchers, publishing OA can mean they retain the rights to their work, comply with funder mandates, increase their citation score, and disseminate their research to be actively utilized by a wider audience.
As a Digital Projects Librarian, I primarily engage in the field of digital scholarship and receive daily inquiries regarding the scope and implications of Open Access publishing. However, what I have come to realize this year is that the individuals who are not proactively reaching out to me to inquire about OA are those I need to focus on. This realization came in a conversation with my best friend, who is also a PhD student (I swear this is relevant and I’m not just boasting of her accomplishments, though she deserves it!). She asked what I did at my new job, and when I explained OA to her, she casually commented, “Open Access is nice, but isn’t it not as good quality? Like isn’t it predatory?” As I, horrified, corrected her, I noted that this was a common rhetoric in those reluctant to contribute to OA research. Could it be that folks doing positive work in higher education, like my friend, weren’t publishing OA due misconceptions or an overall lack of awareness?
For the record – OA journals can be just as quality and peer-reviewed as subscription based journals. And yes, predatory publishers usually pose as OA journals to charge higher than average publishing fees, but anyone who is doing the regular due-diligence of scoping out a journal before publishing with them can avoid this. Remember: always read your author rights and the journal policies!
Confront the Misconceptions
International Open Access Week, occurring from October 21st to 25th, provided an excellent opportunity to address the misinformation surrounding OA publishing. Of course, as many librarians could probably tell you, not every workshop or promotional campaign you run is a guaranteed hit, but I had to try! Coordinating with the Digital Communications Specialist, I wrote out a “Mythbusters” social media campaign to address common myths around OA (see below!). I also hosted a workshop to spread awareness about what discounts the library could offer researchers looking to publish OA without breaking the bank. I titled it, Pay Less, Publish More, as I wanted to target the average academic who is unfortunately very used to the toxic, “publish or perish!” motto in academia. Fighting that motto is the core of OA, but as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, it’s an ongoing, uphill battle.
Finally, I had the pleasure of hosting an OA Panel, Fear of the Unknown: What REALLY happens when you make your work Open?, in collaboration with the Open Education Librarian. We made it online to be more accessible to those outside of the university, and promoted it externally on the International Open Access Week website and across listservs, as well as the usual internal library emails and website. To our joy, it had great attendance, and sparked excellent conversation thanks to the wonderful panelists! The panel involved four professionals who were champions of OA in a variety of areas – Open Education, Open Data, Open Science, and Open Student Journals – coming together to share their experiences on the benefits of Open Scholarship. I wanted a discussion around OA that wasn’t just theoretical; I wanted real people with practical examples of how they personally and professionally benefited from making their work OA. I also really hoped to bring together the different aspects that make up Open Scholarship in collaboration with one another to help reduce siloing within the University of Calgary. We all work towards a shared common goal in our careers, but rarely have a chance to promote it all together.
It can feel demoralizing when you’re trying to make change on your own at such a large, institutional scale. The efforts during OA week to combat misconceptions and reduce siloing have reinforced my belief that there are others in my field who share my passion for driving positive change. The long fight for more equitable, accessible research is ongoing, but enacting small changes in the perceptions of OA can help start to make a difference.
Mythbusting Open Access
Here’s the TDLR, presented in the “mythbusting” format we spread across library social media during OA Week at the University of Calgary:
Myth: “Publishing my research Open Access is nice… but it doesn’t benefit me.”
Fact: Publishing open access increases the visibility and dissemination of your work, which leads to greater public engagement, accessibility, more downloads and citations.
Myth: “If I publish my research Open Access, I don’t maintain the rights to my work.”
Fact: Publishing Open Access actually allows you to maintain the copyright of your work with the use of Creative Commons Licensing, unlike traditionally published journals. Always read your author agreement to understand your rights!
Myth: “I already published my research so it can’t be made Open Access.”
Fact: Most journals will allow you to submit the unedited version of your work, called a “pre-print” to an institutional repository.
Myth: “I can’t afford to publish Open Access.”
Fact: While publishing Open Access usually entails paying Article Processing Charges, most university libraries have deals through CRKN to offer discounts for authors. These discounts can range from a few hundred dollars to entirely waived fees!
Myth: “Open Access journals are poorer quality than traditional journals.”
Fact: Open Access journals can still be vigorously peer-reviewed and meet scholarly standards. The DOAJ for example is an index with over 20,000 verified Open Access journals, with strict criteria on the quality of journals they accept.