Open Access

Copyright law grants authors/creators a set of exclusive rights over their works and the ability to transfer one or more of these rights to another party:

• The right to reproduce the work
• The right to prepare derivative works based on the work
• The right to distribute copies of the work to the public by sale, rental, lease, or lending
• The right to perform the work publicly
• The right to display the work publicly

In traditional scholarly publishing, when your work is accepted for publication, the publisher will ask you to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement. These agreements have typically transferred all of your copyrights to the publisher.  

As a result, you no longer hold the copyright in your work. Instead, the publisher holds the copyright in your work and is now in a position to distribute it, sell it to individuals, and provide subscription-based access to it via libraries. 

Open Access scholarship differs from traditionally published scholarship. It also differs from public domain content and from scholarship that is only "free to read". The key differences are:

• OA scholarship is still in copyright, but the authors retain copyright and do not transfer it to a publisher
• OA scholarship is openly licensed and free to access, so it can be used in ways that strictly copyrighted content cannot

Most often, OA scholarship is openly licensed with a Creative Commons license. The license permits the publisher to distribute the work and readers to access and use the work, within the parameters of the license, at no cost.

Scholarly Journal Publishing

There are several models in play in OA journal publishing, including Diamond OA, Gold OA, Green OA, and hybrid journals:

• Diamond OA: free for authors and readers; funded externally
• Gold OA: free for readers; authors pay Article Processing Charges (APCs) to cover publishing costs
• Green OA: authors self-archive in repositories. Free for readers and authors; however, embargos are sometimes required, and authors need to determine which version of their article they can legally post per publisher/journal policies.
• Hybrid journals: include a mix of subscription and OA articles; some authors have been able to pay the APC to publish OA. This means that even within a single issue, some articles will be OA (free to readers), some will be subscription-based.

Gold OA is becoming a dominant model but introduces barriers for authors, with APCs often reaching hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Other OA models include:

• Transformative Agreements (TAs): Contracts negotiated between institutions (libraries, national and regional consortia) and publishers
  • Shift publishing costs away from authors and back to libraries/institutions
  • Aim to transition subscription journals towards OA
  • Pros: Eliminates direct costs to authors
  • Cons: Potentially perpetuates high-cost journal publishing infrastructures
  • Note: UM has not yet signed any TAs with publishers.

• Subscribe-to-Open (S2O): "S2O allows publishers to convert journals from subscriptions to OA, one year at a time. Using S2O, a publisher offers a journal’s current subscribers continued access. If all current subscribers participate in the S2O offer (simply by not opting out) the publisher opens the content covered by that year’s subscription. If participation is not sufficient—for example, if some subscribers delay renewing in the expectation that they can gain access without participating—then that year’s content remains gated." (S2O Community of Practice)

Scholarly Book/Monograph Publishing

OA book publishing takes several forms, some of which are similar to OA journal publishing. 

• Some publishers charge authors Book Publishing Charges (BPCs)
• Other publishers maintain a not-for-profit status and are able to use the revenue from selling OA books (yes, OA books can still be sold), donations from individuals, and funds from library membership programs to publish OA
• A number of scholar-led presses are sustained by a "Diamond OA" model
• Other university presses have developed innovative models, such as MIT's Direct to Open (D2O) model

OAPEN is a great resource for learning more about OA Book publishing.