Open Science & Research Services

"Open Access literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions" (Suber, 2012).

The existing system for producing and distributing publicly funded research articles doesn’t take advantage of the possibilities of innovations like open licensing. Without a free-flowing system, access to the results of scientific research is limited to institutions that are able to commit to hefty journal subscriptions. This doesn't allow for broad redistribution, or repurposing for activities such as text and data mining without additional permissions from the rights-holder. This closed system limits the impact on the scientific and scholarly community and progress is slowed significantly.

Open Access is the means of disseminating scholarly and scientific literature, free of charge over the internet and, to other researchers and anyone else who might benefit from accessing the results of research. Hence, Open Access communication of research outputs and the application of open licenses maximises the distribution, potential usage and outcomes of research findings.

Open Access offers several benefits, including:

1. Increased Visibility
   When research output is published openly and free of charge, it has the potential to reach more people in the scholarly community and the larger public than that published behind a paywall.
2. Global Knowledge Sharing
   When research output is published openly and free of charge, it has the potential to reach more people in the scholarly community and the larger public than that published behind a paywall.
3. Accelerated Research Progress
   Open access promotes faster research progress by allowing scholars to build upon existing findings without facing paywalls or subscription barriers.
4. Wider Readership and Citations
   Open access publications are more likely to be cited, leading to increased recognition and impact for researchers and their work.
5. Equality and Inclusivity
   Open access eliminates financial barriers, making scholarly resources accessible to individuals from diverse backgrounds and institutions, promoting equality in education and research.
6. Retention of Copyright
   Traditional journals typically require authors to give up their copyright to the articles they publish. Most Open Access journals let the author(s) keep the copyright.
7. Compliance and Funding Requirements
   Several funding bodies (e.g. MOE Tier 2 and 3, NRF Competitive Research Programme, ASTAR, NMRC) require grant holders to make their publications open access. Additionally, NTU also has implemented an Open Access Policy since 2011. For more details, see this Library Guide.

There are multiple pathways to making your publications openly accessible:

• Repository-based or "Green" Open Access

"Green" Open Access is when a version of a published work (i.e. preprint or postprint, see 'Glossary of terms') is deposited into a repository where it can be accessed for free. The repository can be an institutional repository such as DR-NTU, subject-based repository such as arXiv and RePEc, or international repository such as PubMed Central and Europe PMC. The repository allows search engines such as Google to crawl their content so that the deposited articles are accessible on the Internet. These articles may have a Creative Commons License applied, which specifies how the article can be used.

Some publishers may require a 6-12 months embargo, before the article can be made available in the open repository. Information regarding the self-archiving policies of publishers can be found by searching at the Sherpa/Romeo website or publishers' websites directly.

NTU supports "Green" Open Access. For more information on depositing your articles in DR-NTU, see this Library Guide.

• Journal-based or "Gold" Open Access

“Gold” Open Access refers to publishing in a fully open access scholarly journal, where the publisher provides free and immediate online access to the full content of the journal and the final published articles are fully open access. Articles have a Creative Commons License applied, which specifies how the article can be used.

Business models for this form of open access vary.  Publishers often charge an article processing charge (APC), which may be paid by the funder, author’s institution or an individual researcher.

A comprehensive list of open access journals is maintained by the Directory of Open Access Journals. There is also a Directory of Open Access Books.

• "Diamond" or "Platinum" Open Access
  “Diamond” Open Access refers to open access  journals that are free for readers to access and for authors to publish in. These journals are often community-driven and supported by institutions or by national or regional infrastructure. A recent report commissioned by cOAlition S explored the huge global range of Diamond open access journals.

• Platform for content hosting

  NTU Library provides custom-designed web sites to host journal content, one example is Studies in Religion and the Enlightenment; we also provide advisory services related to author’s rights, publishing contact. If you need any assistance, please contact us.