Open Access (OA) Literature

"Open access (OA) refers to the practice of making digital content freely available online. While digital content can mean a variety of things, it most commonly refers to peer-reviewed scholarly research articles but has increasingly included a wider dissemination of scholarly pursuits such as monographs, papers, dissertations, technical/project reports, presentations, and data. Peter Suber, current director of the Office for Scholarly Communication Office at Harvard University and one of the leading pioneers of the OA movement, defines OA literature as “digital, online, free of charge for everyone with an internet connection, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.”1

With a recent interest in OA over the past several years by faculty and researchers alike, it is interesting to note that OA publishing dates back to the 1990s when journal subscription prices began skyrocketing and the need for different business models became apparent. At that time, professional publishing organizations and independent publishers (scientists/scholars) began working together to develop a business model to support OA. As OA emerged as a new publishing model as an attempt to support publishing organizations and scientists/scholars, it is today an established process of delivering scientific communication with support from the government and researcher funders as opposed to subscription fees."