Open Access Overview
Defining Open Access (OA)
Open access (OA) refers to freely available, digital, online information. Open access scholarly literature is free of charge and often carries less restrictive copyright and licensing barriers than traditionally published works, for both the users and the authors.
While OA is a newer form of scholarly publishing, many OA journals comply with well-established peer-review processes and maintain high publishing standards.
Quick Links
- Prism – Northwestern Medicine’s institutional repository
- Open Access Spectrum Evaluation Tool – rates journals based on openness
- SHERPA/ROMEO – find your publisher’s copyright transfer agreement
- Open Access Overview – historical overview by open access champion, Peter Suber
- Scientific Data Sharing – NIH data management and sharing policy (effective 2023) ; includes information for research publishing