Open Access Spectrum Evaluation Tool - SPARC

"While the rapid growth of Open Access has seen an expansion in the availability of scholarly articles, it has also generated confusion within the research community. Many journals claim to be 'Open' while actually placing moderate or severe restrictions on what an author or reader can do with an article, for example. It has become clear that not all 'Open' is created equal. The Open Access Spectrum (OAS) Evaluation Tool provides independent, expert analysis of journal OA policies beyond just 'is this article free to read?'

The OAS Evaluation Tool uses the HowOpenIsIt? Guide as the basis for a 100-point scale. Journal policies are mapped against the scale to generate a certified score that is straightforward, easy to understand, open, free, and:

• Provides critical information to authors, libraries, research funders, government agencies, and other interested parties.
• Includes distinct evaluations for a journal’s policies regarding reader rights, reuse rights, copyrights, author posting rights, automatic posting, and machine readability.
• Can be used to help determine compliance with funder policies, institutional mandates, and researchers’ individual values.
• Offers a unique opportunity for publishers to independently validate their journals’ degree of openness and compliance with funder/campus policies.
• Pulls together—in one single, accurate web resource—information that is otherwise buried across scores of publisher websites."