Kash, Business Librarian and avid xbox gamer

What is open access?
I get that question a lot. Well, open access is about making your research works available online, free of charge, allowing mostly unrestricted usage. Participating in open access can help to improve the discoverability and visibility of your scholarly works. Also, when you choose to make your works open access, you’re also helping those who may not have the necessary access to academic works.

Raven, ELL Librarian and beauty junkie

So, how do I take my first step in open access?
All journeys begin with a single step. There are two main routes of open access – green open access and gold open access. In green open access, you deposit a version of your work in an institutional repository such as ScholarBank@NUS. In gold open access, you pay a fee to publish your article in a journal and make it freely available to everyone.

Iftikhar, Engineering Librarian and cross-training athlete

Never heard of ScholarBank@NUS
Really? Well, it’s NUS’ institutional repository, developed and maintained by NUS Libraries to enable open access to impact lives and for use by future generations.

Umarani, Sociology Librarian and Arsenal  supporter

How can I learn more about open access?
Good. You’re hooked. Email scholarbank@nus.edu.sg with your questions about our institutional repository.

Shu Wen, Pharmacy Librarian and serial cat lover

I want more information!
We hear you! That’s why we frequently partner publishers to organise academic publishing talks. In conjunction with #OpenAccessWeek, we’ve invited Mrs. Liesbeth Kanis from Brill to present on 26 October, 10 a.m. at the Central Library Theatrette 1 about open access in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

That’s not all, check out the Fact vs Fiction section below!

False. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) provides access to more than 9,000 high quality and peer-reviewed open access journals. The Journal Citation Reports (JCR) database also lists OA journals with impact factors.

False. Open access publications are still bound by Creative Commons Licenses which allow you to choose how you can share your works and allow others to use it fairly.

True and False. The open access movement has led to some predatory publishers, who exploit authors by charging them publication fees without providing the services that legitimate journals do.

However, not all open access journals are predatory. The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) hosts a list of genuine publishers that you should refer to.

As with all journals, we recommend that you use the ThinkCheckSubmit website to verify the open access publisher you are submitting your papers to.

False. You can submit to subscription based journals and participate in green open access by depositing a copy of your research output in ScholarBank@NUS based on the publisher’s self-archiving policy.

Note: For gold open access, authors have to pay an article processing fee (APC).