Open Access

The simplest way to make your work open access is to publish it with an open access publisher, as a journal article or book. This is typically known as "Gold" open access. Since this method follows traditional publication workflows, such as editorial and peer review, publisher editing and formatting, and a final version of record being published on a formal site, it is the most popular pathway for authors. The biggest challenge for Gold open access is that the most common business model for offsetting the costs of publication is to apply an Article Processing Charge (APC), to be paid by the author, their funder or their institution.

Most open access journals do not charge APCs (this is known as "Diamond" or "Platinum" OA), so if you are interested in publishing your work OA, there are many options for finding the right journal for your work - most of the indexes listed below have a facet or filter for finding journals without a charge.

If there is a specific journal you need to publish with that is not open access, it will mostly likely provide an open access option, called hybrid OA, where you can make your specific article open access if you pay an APC.

Many funding agencies will allow you to budget for APCs as part of your grant proposal, especially if they have a public access policy

Additionally, ASU Library does have some partnerships or subscriptions that either completely cover or provide a discount on APCs with certain publishers.

Journals

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) provides an index to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. It only includes OA journals that pass its evaluation criteria. Additionally, most traditional publishers such as Elsevier, Wiley, and Springer Nature also provide open access options.

Whether deciding to publish in a traditional or open access journal, it is important to carefully evaluate the credibility of the publisher and the journal to avoid sketchy or scam journals (sometimes called predatory publishers). See Evaluating Publishing Options for more information on what characteristics to look for.  Or, consider this simple checklist of "Think! Check! Submit!." 

Books

Many academic publishers produce open access books, including university, commercial and academic-led publishers. A publisher should give clear information on their website about the services they offer and any fees involved, the open access model they offer and their peer-review processes. If you are interested in publishing a book or a book chapter open access, the following indexes will help you explore your options.

Open access publishing still requires funding operating costs. Many journals are supported by an institution or sponsor, but the most well known method of support is through Article Processing Charges (APCs), modeled after traditional page charges. Rather than charging the reader or institutions to access content, publishers generate revenue by requiring authors to pay an APC, ranging from a few hundred dollars, to upward of $5,000 depending on the journal.

It's important to remember that charging authors to publish is not solely limited to open access publishing, and can include charges for color images, number of pages, or including supplementary material.

Since many funding agencies require researchers to make their published work and accompanying data sets openly accessible, authors may budget for covering publishing costs as an allowable budget expense in their proposal. SHERPA/JULIET provides the open access policy of various funding organizations.

Book Processing Charge (BPC)

Publishers use a variety of business models to support open access book publishing. Some of these models require a fee to be paid by the author’s funder or institution. If a book processing charge is applied, the book should be made open access immediately upon publication. Since the publication process for books tends to be more intensive than for journal articles, the costs to support OA publishing tend to be higher - typically ranging from $1500 for a single book chapter to over $12,000 for an entire monograph.

Hybrid Open Access

If you are publishing in a tradition or subscription journal, you may be offered the option to make your article open access for a fee (usually through an article processing charge or APC). This is referred to as "hybrid open access." While this can be a convenient way to ensure your work is OA while publishing with a familiar journal, hybrid open access raises concerns about publishers double-dipping. This is where libraries continue to pay annually increasing subscription costs, while authors also pay APCs that also continue to go up in cost. Since publishers do not tend to be transparent about their business models, hybrid OA is not preferred as a model by most open access advocates or libraries.

While the majority of open access journals publish articles for free, many of the most well-known open access publishers do require that authors pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) to offset the cost of publication. The ASU Library supports ASU authors through our relationships with publishers as well as consulting with authors to identify appropriate publication options that will expand the reach and impact of their work.

We are able to provide waivers or discounts on APCs with certain publishers as a result of the following partnerships and subscriptions:

ECS has provided these directions: How to publish open access with ECS

Some funding agencies will allow these charges to be paid from grant funds, but of course, not all authors are funded. Many publishers will grant a waiver of the APC upon request if the author is not able to pay, so it is always worth checking to see if that’s a possibility. In addition, there are other ways you can make your work openly available for free.