The Open Access Directory – Inside Science Resources

"Need some good examples of addenda that authors can use to make their work open access? Is your institution considering providing an open access publishing fund and you want to get an overview of what others are offering? Need some suggestions for researchers looking for advice on where to make their documents or research data open? The Open Access Directory launched in 2008 and is a collection of lists and information related to open access to science and scholarship. Content is overseen by an editorial board of prominent members of the open access community. While not a science or technology specific resource, it contains useful information for members of the science and technology library community. The table of contents of the directory contains 46 categories spanning the open access landscape. Here I will highlight four of them.

Data Repositories:  a list of repositories and databases containing open data. The list is organized by discipline, many of which are specific to science/technology (for example, Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Energy, Environmental Science, Geology, Geosciences, Marine Science, Medicine, and Physics)

Disciplinary Repositories:  this is a list of discipline specific open repositories containing primarily texts instead of data. This list contains 45 disciplines, many of which are science and technology focused.

Open Access Publishing Funds: a list of funds given by various institutions in support of authors publishing in open access journals, books and other types of publications.

Author Addenda: provides a list of copyright transfer agreements from various institutions. These addenda allow authors to retain certain rights to their scholarship, specifically allowing them to make their work open access.

These are just a few examples of the categories of information found on the Open Access Directory. Keep this resource in mind as a possible place to turn to as open access related questions or concerns come up in your work, which seems increasingly likely as the open access movement continues to expand.  

Eric Snajdr, Associate Librarian, University Library, Indiana University – Purdue University, Indianapolis"