Publish open access
What is Open Access?
Open Access is a term used to describe a publishing model where the researcher makes her publication freely available online, and thereby eliminates subscription barriers.
The goal is to publish quality controlled, scientific articles freely available online, and thereby encouraging the use and dissemination of the research results.
Open Access in Medicine
Within the subject area of medicine there are several initiatives to support free access to scientific information and dissemination of free, quality controlled, online journals - i.e. open access journals. Some of the main initiatives:
- BioMed Central
- PLoS Public Library of Science
Research Funders Demand Open Access
Research funders increasingly require publicly funded research to be freely available.
Links to descriptions of the requirements of some of the most important funders:
Self-archiving
Self-archiving (or parallell publishing) means that the researcher publishes a copy of an article published in a scientific journal (or other type of publication), usually in an open archive or institutional repository. The purpose of parallel publishing is to make the research results freely available and increase dissemination, usage, and citations.
Comply with the research funders' demands for open access
Most publishers allow parallel publishing, which is a type of open access, and can be a way to comply with the research funders' demands for open access publishing. Many publishers, though, have an embargo period for parallell publishing. The length of embargo periods varies. In general, embargos of between 6 months and 24 months are common.
Institutional repositories are run by universities to house their own research output.
LUCRIS is the open archive or repository of Lund University.
Further information about self-archiving at the Lund University Library website:
