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Strategic Publishing, Research Impact & Researcher Profiles: Open Access Publishing

This guide covers scholarly publishing strategies, how to choose a journal, discusses Open Access publishing models, how to evaluate research impact, and provides tips around managing researcher profiles

What is meant by 'Open Access'?

 

Open Access describes scholarly and scientific research that is openly and freely accessible to anyone regardless of their ability to pay.

Open Access research with the Creatives Commons Attribution (CC BY) license applied means the researcher has retained copyright ownership of their own work and has given any person or machine the right to read, analyse, share or reuse the research in any way, as long as the original researcher is acknowledged as the author of the original work.

Recent developments

 

Open Access publishing has gained much momentum over recent years, making it an essential consideration for your publishing strategy for several vital reasons.  

  • Many funding bodies and educational institutions (UTS included) have Open Access policies requiring your research to be made open access immediately upon publication.  

  • Significant policy shifts from the European and International coalitions, the US and the NHMRC requiring compulsory open access publishing for publicly funded research, demonstrate the growing relevance of Open Access publishing.

 

Benefits of Open Access publishing

 

Open Access publishing allows your research to be freely distributed and used under licence. This offers many benefits, including: 

  • Increasing your visibility as a researcher 
  • Unlocking opportunities for collaboration 
  • Increasing the impact of your research 
  • Increasing citation rates 
  • Ensuring compliance with grant and funding rules 
  • Allowing researchers in developing countries to see your work 
  • Allowing your work to influence policy 
  • Ensuring taxpayers get value for (research) money and can access your findings

Different models of Open Access publishing

 

There are different models of Open Access publishing, but the three main ones are: Green, Gold and Hybrid.  

Green Open Access

Institutional or subject-based repositories generally fall under this category (e.g., UTS OPUS). 

Authors can publish a copy of their research output for free in 'Green' Open Access platforms (subject to permission from the publisher where the paper originally appeared). 

Once the paper has been published in a 'Green' Open Access platform, anyone worldwide should be able to read the article for free (although an embargo may apply).  

In addition to published papers, many Open Access platforms also accept preprints, and Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAM).  

 

As UTS researchers, you must deposit a copy of your research output into OPUS.

 

Gold Open Access

Under the 'Gold' Open Access model, the final published version of the research output is freely available to anyone worldwide (e.g., UTS ePress).  

However, to recoup the cost of the publishing process, some publishers may charge the author an Article Processing Charge (APC) or similar fees. 

Hybrid Open Access

In 'Hybrid' Open Access journals, authors are charged Article Processing Charges (APC), and institutions are often charged a subscription to the same journal content. 

UTS Library does not support payment of APCs to hybrid journals. Instead, we encourage researchers to take advantage of the Read & Publish agreements (more on this below).

Read & Publish Agreements (for selected Hybrid journals)

 

Read & Publish (R&P) agreements are negotiated between the Council of Australian University Libraries (CAUL) and a few publishers. 

In 2024, UTS Library has agreements with the following publishers:

  • Springer Nature
  • Wiley
  • Company of Biologists (Development, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology)

Visit the library website for further information, including links to lists of included titles, details on conditions and caps, and instructions on publishing under the agreement without paying an APC.

Finding Open Access publications

 

If you are unsure which Open Access journal you should consider publishing in, try the following tools:

Open Access publishing services at UTS

 

UTS offers open access publishing services via: 

  • UTS OPUS (Open Publications of UTS Scholars) – the university's green open access digital repository - focusing on journal articles, conference papers, and theses by UTS researchers.  

  • UTS ePress – the university's diamond open access publishing unit, focuses on books and journals by UTS researchers. 

For more information on each of these platform, explore the following link:

Data publishing

 

Data publishing may lead to opportunities for further research impact and is also mandated by an increasing number of funders and publishers.

For more information (including how to publish research data at UTS), visit the Library website.