Title: Module 2: Open Access
Course: Teaching Open Science and Research Data Management for Undergraduates > Section: Module 2: Open Access

Scholarly communication

This page is based on the work: Das, A. K. (2015). Scholarly communication (Vol. 1). UNESCO Publishing, licenced under: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Scholarly communication is a key part of academic research. It’s the way researchers share and publish their findings so that others in the global academic community can access and learn from them. Researchers use specific channels to communicate, such as academic journals, conference papers, monographs, dissertations, and research reports. Social media is also used to share scientific results.

Learned societies - formal organizations representing academic fields - are mainly responsible for starting and running scholarly journals in their areas. These journals allow researchers to share their work and receive feedback from other experts. Since the mid-1900s, these societies have worked closely with commercial publishers to reach a wider audience. Publishers benefit from this partnership by gaining access to many authors and often receiving the copyrights to published articles.

The internet has transformed how scholarly literature is shared. Unlike the print-only era, digital publishing allows research to be accessed instantly and globally, giving a major boost to scholarly communication.^1

References

1. Das, A. K. (2015). Scholarly communication (Vol. 1). UNESCO Publishing. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000231938.locale=en BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 26 Mar. 2025.

Open Access

Start by watching the video Open Access - Why Open Science? (Centrum Cyfrowe)^^1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GbXjWLKqG0

Open Access (OA) means that the material is freely available on the public Internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or 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.^2 Open Access publications include articles, journals, books, theses, reports, etc.

References

1. Centrum Cyfrowe. (2014.) Open Access - Why Open Science? YouTube, uploaded by Centrum Cyfrowe, 26 February 2014.

2. UEF library. Basics of Open and Responsible Science: Open Access Publishing and Research Data. Open access publishing. https://blogs.uef.fi/ueflibrary-bors/open-access-publishing/  CC BY 4.0. Accessed 26 Mar. 2025

(Open Access) journals and repositories

An academic journal is a scholarly periodical where experts publish articles presenting their research findings and reviewing the work of others in their field. These articles are typically peer-reviewed, ensuring that the information they contain is credible and contributes to the knowledge within the discipline. In peer review, scholars in each specific field of research assess the research methods and results carefully. When the research is accepted by the reviewers, the peer-reviewed manuscripts can be considered approved by the scholarly community. Access to these journals is often not free, and either the researcher should pay to read an article or the university / academic institution pays a subscription fee to obtain access for their members. Accordingly, in some cases, journals charge the researchers the Article Processing Charges (APC) to make their research Open Access.

Open Access journals and repositories aim at enhancing the visibility and accessibility of research outputs by ensuring that scientific output like articles, data, or other research material, is freely available to the public. OA journals and repositories form a digital library where knowledge is shared without barriers, according to the principles of open access, using related licenses. Instead of locking crucial scientific findings behind paywalls, OA journals publish articles that are free for anyone to read and download. This model democratizes knowledge, allowing researchers worldwide to build upon existing work without the restrictions that often accompany subscription-based publishing.

DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) is a unique and extensive index of diverse OA journals from around the world, driven by a growing community. It is committed to ensuring that quality content is freely available online for everyone.

A scientific repository is an online database where researchers store, share, and access scholarly works such as articles, datasets, and research findings. It helps ensure that scientific information is preserved, discoverable, and openly available for collaboration and further study. A scientific output stored in the archive can be, for example, a preprint, which is an early version of a research paper shared publicly before it has been peer-reviewed and published in a scientific journal.  Open Access repositories complement academic journals by providing a digital place to publish preprints, data, and other scientific outputs. Data repositories are often governed by the FAIR principles. The synergy between OA journals and repositories, underpinned by the principles of Open Science, empowers students and researchers to advance knowledge more collaboratively and transparently than before. This environment nurtures a more inclusive and innovative scientific community where knowledge is shared openly, fostering learning, critical thinking, and breakthroughs across disciplines.

Open Research Europe is an open access publishing platform. The platform makes it easy for European Commission beneficiaries to comply with the open access terms of their funding and offers researchers a publishing venue to share their results and insights rapidly and facilitate open, constructive research discussion.

Publishing Open Access

Open Access publishing can be realised through two main, non-exclusive routes:

- Gold Open Access (Open Access publishing): The publisher makes the article freely available immediately upon publication. This often involves a one-time fee, known as an Article Processing Charge (APC) or Book Processing Charge (BPC), which may be paid by the author, their institution, or the research funder. These fees can range from a few hundred to several thousand euros. Some Open Access journals do not charge any fees.
- Green Open Access (self-archiving): The author, or someone on their behalf, makes the published work—or part of it—freely available in an online repository, with the publisher’s permission. Some publishers require an embargo period before the work can be shared, and may also limit which version of the article can be archived.
- Hybrid Open Access: This refers to journals, conference proceedings, or edited volumes that include both Open Access content and content that requires a subscription or purchase.^1

Article versions
In the process of publishing a research article, several versions of the article are created, and these versions usually have different permissions.^3

When self-archiving, it is important to check the publisher’s policy for Open Access, which version may be archived, and if there is an embargo for self-archiving.

Some journals allow sharing the submitted version, also called a preprint, and later replacing it with the reviewed version after publication. Many journals now permit archiving the accepted version, also known as the author manuscript or postprint. This version includes the final text after peer review but doesn’t have the publisher’s layout. In some cases, journals also allow archiving the final published version, known as the version of record.^1 See image 1.

Image 1. Models of self-archiving. (Patrick Hochstenbach, CC0 1.0)^2

The embargo period can vary depending on the version and the journal’s policy. It may range from zero to 60 months. For example, a journal might allow the accepted version to be shared immediately after publication, while the published version must wait 12 months.^1

Benefits of Open Access

- The visibility and accessibility of open publications improve, as search engines can easily find them.
- Opportunities for research collaboration and interaction increase.
- Better visibility and accessibility make research findings more widely usable.
- The impact of funding is strengthened when results reach broader use.
- Open publications are available to everyone – including experts outside the scientific community, such as doctors, product developers, and public sector employees.
- Openness promotes evidence-based decision-making^3,4

Get information on Open Access performance by country from the site: https://open.coki.ac/

References

1. Open Science Training Handbook. Open Accesss to Published Research Results. https://open-science-training-handbook.github.io/Open-Science-Training-Handbook_EN//02OpenScienceBasics/05OpenAccessToPublishedResearchResults.html CC0 1.0 Universal. Accessed 26 Mar. 2025.

2.  Hochstenbach, P. Models of self-archiving. [Image]. Open Science Training Handbook. https://open-science-training-handbook.github.io/Open-Science-Training-Handbook_EN/02OpenScienceBasics/05OpenAccessToPublishedResearchResults.html  CC0 1.0 Universal. Accessed 22 Aug. 2025.

3. Tampere University Library. Guides. Student's guide to responsible and open science: Open access. https://libguides.tuni.fi/open-science-for-students/open-access-publishing
Accessed 26 Mar. 2025.

4. Turku AMK. Tiedonhakijan oppaat. Avoin julkaiseminen. https://libguides.turkuamk.fi/avoinjulkaiseminen CC BY 4.0. Accessed 16 Aug. 2025.

Predatory publishing

Predatory publishing, also known as write-only publishing or deceptive publishing, is a harmful business model in academic publishing. These publishers charge authors fees but do not provide proper peer review or editorial services. Unlike legitimate journals, they often skip quality checks and mislead researchers into publishing with them. While some authors may knowingly submit to these journals, many are unaware of their poor or even fraudulent practices.^1

In addition to publishing, many of these questionable companies have moved into organizing predatory conferences. These events may look credible at first, but closer inspection reveals serious issues. They are usually run by commercial companies rather than scientific societies, charge high participation fees, and offer low-quality presentations with few attendees.^1

References

1. UEF library. Basics of Open and Responsible Science: Open Access Publishing and Research Data. Predatory journals. https://blogs.uef.fi/ueflibrary-bors/open-access-publishing/predatory-journals/. CC BY 4.0. Accessed 26 Mar. 2025

Open Peer Review: transparent and traceable reviewing process

The peer review process in academic journals is a critical evaluation system where submitted manuscripts are scrutinized by experts in the relevant field before publication. After an initial editorial assessment, the manuscript gets sent to several independent reviewers, who examine the work for originality, significance, validity, clarity, and adherence to scientific standards. Reviewers provide feedback and recommend whether the manuscript should be accepted, revised, or rejected. The editor then decides whether the submission is worth publishing based on reviewer comments and suggestions. This process aims to ensure the credibility, reliability, and quality of scholarly literature. Usually, the identity of the reviewers, and sometimes of the authors as well, is hidden during this process.

Anonymous peer review and refereeing is the current gold standard in academic publishing. Sometimes this means anonymity of both the reviewer and the author (double-blind), but often only the reviewer is anonymous (single-blind). The most commonly cited reasons for anonymity are:^1

- Ability to criticize any manuscript without fear of retribution.
- Dispassionate reading of reviews.
- Protects collegial relationships.
- Supports early career reviewers and referees.
- Reviews are based on the papers' merits rather than the authors' reputation (double-blind).

Open science also aims to change peer review practices.

Open peer review (OPR), also called transparent reviewing, can mean different things. The main goal is to make the review process more open, reliable, and fair. In open peer review, different parts of the process can be made visible—such as the identity of the reviewer or researcher, the reviewed content, the review report, comments, the interaction between reviewer and researcher, the platform, or a mix of these.^2

The benefits of open peer review include improving the quality of reviews, making the review process more visible, strengthening the integrity of research, and encouraging collaboration.^2

Read more:

HowOpenItIs? A Guide for Evaluating the Openness of Journals

Strömberg, A., Norekvål, T. M., Moons, P., & Lauck, S. (2023). Open Access publishing: benefits and challenges. European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 22(8), e115-e117.
https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjcn/zvad099

References

1. Finnish Open Science Online Resource. Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland [producer]. Open Peer Review - What is it and how to do it? https://findocnet.fi/mod/hvp/view.php?id=9413&forceview=1 CC BY 4.0. Accessed 26 Mar. 2025.

2.  Kiviluoto, J., Kleemola, A.,  Nokelainen, I., Palomäki, H.,  Saarinen, S.,  Sinisalo, R.,  Talikka, M., & Värri, H. (2024.) LUT University. LibGuides. Open Science. Online Course. Open peer review.
https://libguides.lut.fi/c.php?g=714887&p=5200197 CC BY 4.0. Accessed Aug. 22. 2025.