Skip to Main Content

Open Access

This guide provides an introduction to Open Access - "the free, immediate, online availability of research articles combined with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment."

How to Publish Open Access

There are different ways to make an output open access, and the method you choose may vary depending on where you want to publish your research output.

There are two common types of open access publishing are known as Gold and Green Open Access.

Gold/Hybrid Open Access

  • Researchers publish their articles in
    • an Open Access Journal
    • Hybrid Journal (subscription based journal with a paid open access option)
  • Copyright is held by the author
  • No embargo and the access is immediate through the publisher website

 

Note: If you are considering to publish Gold OA, please check that you have funding in place before submitting your manuscript to the journal.

Green Open Access, also known as Self-Archiving

  • Author does not need to pay to publish, but instead the institution will have to subscribe to the journal or pay to get access to the published article
  • Copyright is retained by the publisher
  • Access could be direct or may be delayed due to embargo periods set by the publisher

 

Deposit to IRR

  • Self-archive your final accepted manuscript in IRR
  • Meet University and funder requirements with Green open access

 

SIT Open Access Policy

"Research output along with the metadata, can be deposited for Open Access in SIT's Institutional Research Repository. If the research output is stored with other open repositories, the citation and abstract, with the link to the external open access repository should be provided in SIT IRR."

Retain Your Rights

Most publishers require the author to transfer their copyright to the publisher. This can create significant barriers for authors who want to use or allow others to use their work. It is important, therefore, to review the publisher copyright agreements and understand what rights the publisher allows the authors to retain.

Before signing any transfer agreements, authors are encouraged to negotiate with the publishers to retain certain rights: 

  1. Right to Reproduce

    e.g., make physical or digital copies of a work for colleagues, students, or others

  2. Right to Distribute

    ​​e.g., distribute physical or digital copies of a work to colleagues, students, or at conferences

  3. Right to Prepare Derivative Works

    e.g. prepare subsequent works such as an article, a chapter, or a book that builds upon the publication 

  4. Right to Display Publicly (related to artistic works)

    e.g. show photos, exhibits, and figures from a work in the classroom 

  5. Right to deposit a digital copy in an institutional repository or funding agency repository.