Open access to scientific and scholarly journals is becoming more common as researchers realize the benefits to having their articles widely available. Currently, there are over 4,000 open access journals.
In fact, many granting agencies such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) have now mandated open access to research outputs. In addition, granting agencies such as CIHR require research grantees to make their research accessible within specified periods.
What many researchers don’t know, says Rajiv Nariani, assistant librarian at York’s Steacie Science & Engineering Library, is that York University Libraries have institutional memberships for BioMed Central (BMC), publisher of 186 peer-reviewed open access journals, and Public Library of Science (PLoS) journals. The memberships cover author fees for publication in BMC journals and a 10-per-cent discount for PLoS submissions.
One of the advantages, says Nariani, "is articles published in open access journals are cited earlier and more often."
It also allows people from all over the world to access the work. There is even a Directory of Open Access Repositories – OpenDOAR with over 1,300 repositories listed, as well as a Directory of Open Access Journals. Visit York’s insitutional respository at YorkSpace.
For more information on how York University Libraries support open access publishing, check out the latest issue of YULibrary News for York faculty. Want to know more about Open Access publishing? Read the YULibrary News article “What’s the Buzz about Open Access?”
To see the CIHR policy on access to research outputs, visit the CIHR Web site.
For more information about institutional memberships, CIHR researchers should contact Rajiv Nariani at rajivn@yorku.ca.