Open Access

About Open Access

Open Access refers to free and unrestricted access via the Internet to articles published in scholarly journals, book chapters or monographs. AOSIS OpenJournals has chosen the Open Access method of publishing because we believe it is the right thing to do.

Although Open Access articles are free to access, there may still be certain usage limitations applicable. Usage rights are usually defined in the applicable usage licence attached to the article or journal. AOSIS OpenJournals has chosen the most user-friendly user license, which is the  Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY).

Benefits

The scientific community and society in general benefit from Open Access in many ways:

• The general public: reliable information, very often paid for by taxpayers, is made freely available.
• Researchers: new research findings and the latest scientific developments are shared without access barriers.
• Authors: wider dissemination, increased usage and impact of work.
• Institutions: more resources for teaching, conference presentations and lectures.
• Libraries: financially sustainable long-term repositories are expanded and catalogued.

The funding model

Although access to research articles is unrestricted and free, the production of articles and journals is not without cost. In the Open Access model, traditional subscription revenue (limiting access to paid subscribers only, also known as “toll access”) is replaced by:

• Article processing fees (APFs), sometimes called “page fees” or “publication fees”, usually paid by the author or his/her institution.
• Direct financial support/subsidies by the owners of journals (scholarly society or university).
• A combination of the two, leading to lower APFs.

What are the benefits of article processing fees (APFs)?

APFs ensure transparency and competiveness between publishers to provide the best service at the best price. By coupling the cost of publication with research budgets, APFs also ensure that the journal can scale up to cope with an ever-increasing volume of research. We work with sponsors to reduce the APFs, particularly during the start-up phase.

What do article processing fees (APFs) pay for?

APFs pay for:

• Developing, and maintaining and hosting the electronic platform for peer review and publication.
• Manuscript administration and peer review administration.
• Professional language and orthographic editing.
• Preparation in various formats (e.g. PDF, HTML, EPUB, XML) for online publication.
• Publishing, maintaining and archiving for immediate access.
• Other value-added services such as: Digital Object Identifier (DOI) allocation in CrossRef, Plagiarism screening, linking references to sources, etc.