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Open Access and Scholarly Publishing @ UNO

This guide introduces open access and how UNO scholars can support and publish their research and creative activity open access

Assessing Journal Quality

When planning to publish in an academic journal or respond to a request to edit a journal, quality counts. Many factors influence the decision, whether the journal is a traditional one or an open access journal. The Assessing Journal Quality guide has some tips for factors to consider.

Author Rights Information

Open or Closed: Author's Choice

This video by Openaccessnet illustrates the difference between an open access article and closed access article and how creative commons can help. 

The Copyright Holder Controls the Work

Traditionally, publishers’ contracts restricted an author's use of published work in teaching and research. Contracts often prohibited placing the published work

  • on course websites
  • in a course-pack
  • in scholarly presentations
  • on the author’s personal web page
  • and in scholarly repositories such as UNO's Digital Commons

Many publishers now anticipate an author's legitimate need to distribute and repurpose his work and no longer require exclusive rights to publication. Some publishers balance their interest in recouping publishing costs with the author’s desire to disseminate their ideas broadly, placing a short-term embargo on the open access archiving of the work.

Transferring copyright doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Publishers require only the author’s permission to publish an article, not a wholesale transfer of copyright. To make retention of rights easier, use the Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine to generate a customized addendum to your publisher's contract, reserving the rights you need.

SHERPA/RoMEO

  • Use the Sherpa/RoMEO website to find a journal or publisher's standard policy on retention of copyright by authors.
  • The entry for each publisher lists conditions or restrictions imposed by the publisher on authors' rights to deposit their articles in open access repositories.