Module 3: Open access publishing
After completing this module, you can…
- Describe the advantages of open access publishing.
- Choose an open access option for your scientific publication.
- Use some of the tools for finding OA journals and articles.
- Better recognize predatory journals.
- Explain open peer review process.
Open access – What is it?
Open access (OA) means that the material is freely available on the public Internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, and link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purposes.
Ideally, open access (OA) would make all scientific findings freely available to anyone interested, fostering progress in science and benefiting society globally. Moreover, it would help conserve valuable resources – such as time and money – by preventing researchers from having to replicate results that have already been discovered elsewhere.
Publishers’ attitudes toward open access (OA) publishing have changed significantly in recent years, and today they vary depending on the publisher and the publishing model.
On the other hand, there exist more and more dishonest publishers, so called predatory publishers, whose only ambition is to make as much money as possible. As a researcher, you should be aware of these aspects.
Updated: 8/2025
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