Open science
The concept of ‘open science’ is used to describe openness, transparency and sustainability in all parts of the research process. With reference to scholarly publishing, this means open access to texts, research data and methods.
The research community has benefited in many ways by researchers sharing knowledge and results with colleagues and the wider society. Research policy goals and support from funding bodies with an open science orientation have promoted the wider dissemination of research. Open science also helps to give people all around the world access to new knowledge on the same basis.
Open access
The basic idea of open access – research findings that are published with open access for all – is that publicly funded research should be available to read and download free of charge so that the results can be reused. At the same time, the author retains copyright to the work.
Publishing agreements
Researchers at Uppsala University can publish with open access in numerous scholarly journals, with the cost of publication paid by central publishing agreements. Most of the agreements cover the entire cost of publication, while others give a reduced fee.
To use the agreements, the corresponding author must be a researcher affiliated with UU. In our publishing agreement search tool, you can search the title of the journal to see agreements and conditions. Read and follow the instructions from the relevant publisher.
Methods of open access publishing
There are essentially three different options for OA publishing.
- Publication via an OA journal, publishing house or other open channel
- Hybrid publication with OA as an optional extra
- Parallel publication, with a copy accessible via an open archive
Direct OA publication
Publishing via an OA journal, publishing house or other open channel makes a publication directly accessible for reading. The author retains their copyright while everyone is given the right to read, download, copy and distribute the publication. The publisher often charges a publishing fee for OA publication.
Hybrid OA
One variant of open access is the hybrid model offered by many subscription-based publishers. Open access then becomes an optional extra available for a publishing fee. Hybrid OA has been an alternative for researchers who want to continue to publish in a subscription-based journal while having the option of open access for individual publications. The hybrid model has been criticised because it entails substantial costs for both publication and subscription. Some funding bodies have chosen not to reimburse publishing fees for hybrid journals.
Parallel publication
Many journals allow authors to publish a copy of their article or manuscript in an open archive. This is called parallel publication or green open access. Full-text versions can be published in subject-based archives, such as arXiv, or institutional archives, such as DiVA.
Consult the relevant journal’s website for their rules on embargo periods and other conditions. If you have any questions, the Library can help – contact Ask the Library.
CC licences
In the case of open access publishing, publishers and funding bodies often want a creative commons licence to be used. The licence describes how readers can use, share and build on the publication.
As there are several CC licences to choose between, as author you need to decide whether to allow commercial use of the work, sharing of the work under the same licence, and further processing of the work. The licences can be graded on a scale from more open to more restricted.
The most commonly used variant, and the licence that funding bodies generally require, is CC BY. The licence allows readers to use, distribute, repeat, build on and create new works based on the previous one. The BY condition means that the author is always named as the creator.
