Answer: OA is an academic publishing mechanism, in which research products (articles, books, theses etc.) are downloadable for free.

Answer:

• Funders (financial sponsors) will sometimes make OA publishing one of the conditions for their grants. The Sherpa Juliet website lists all the funders’ policies for OA publication.
• More citations – OA publishing has a higher impact and it provides more visibility for the research. Studies have shown a significant increase in citations when articles are publicly available.
• Philosophy – Sharing research results can help science to reach its full potential since the prices are no longer an obstacle.
• Visibility, cost, prestige, and speed

Answer: 

• Gold Open Access – The research outputs are published in academic journals and are fully available to the public. The author pays a publication fee that is usually referred to as the “Article Processing Charge” (APC). Gold open access is offered by two types of journals:
  • Fully gold open access –  All the published materials in these journals are open to the public once the author pays the APC.
  • Hybrid open access journals – Subscription-based journals that allow authors to publish their works as Gold open access once they paid the APC. 
• Open Research Europe –  a free, peer-reviewed, and open-access publishing service that serves as an alternative for the Gold open access route, which includes publication fees. Open Research Europe is NOT a repository for pre-prints and it is NOT a journal. It has a peer review mechanism only for original papers, so one cannot “deposit” journal articles and their versions to Open Research Europe. FAQ about Open Research Europe.

• Green Open Access – A deposit (self-archive) of papers in a general or an institutional OA repository. Each publisher has policies regarding which version of the article the author may publish. Some publishers also require an embargo period.

Advantages of Green Open Access:

• No fee (no APC).
• Immediate exposure online.

Disadvantages of Green Open Access:

• Multiple versions online.
•  Difficulties in citations count.
• Copyrights issues.

Answer: 

• JCR (Journal Citation Reports) – Look for the candidate journal’s impact factor (IF).
• Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory – Check if the journal is indexed in top academic databases such as Scopus or Web of Science.
• Cabells Scholarly Analytics – DO NOT publish in a journal that appears in Cabells ‘blacklist’ of suspected predatory OA journals.
• Check for membership in OA associations such as OASPA or in well-reputed OA directories, i.e., DOAJ.
• Pricing (APC) – Check the publisher’s discount policies for institutions.

It is important to know that many predatory OA publishers tend to organize “predatory conferences”. These conferences are sometimes fake, proceedings are not published following them and speakers occasionally are different than what was promised. It is advised to use the tools mentioned above before registering to conferences that produced by unknown organizers or not by well-known societies. Here are some tips that may also assist you in avoiding such conferences.

For more information.

For the full list of publishers that offer a reduced APC (article processing charges) for Technion researchers.

Answer:

•  Subject related OA repositories – Arxiv, Biorxiv, Chemrxiv and more
• General OA repositories – Zenodo is recommended.  You are invited to upload your papers or data files (in accordance with the publisher’s agreement) to the Technion community in Zenodo, provided by the Technion Libraries.

It is important to choose a “trusted digital repository“, that is either certified or supports a repository standard. However, a well reputed repository that is not certified, such as Zenodo, currently is also accepted by most of the funders.

Recommended search engines for finding repositories :

• FAIRsharing
• re3data.org

You are invited to upload your papers or data files (in accordance with the publisher’s agreement) to the Technion community in Zenodo, provided by the Technion Libraries.

On the upload page, you will be able to schedule an embargo period, choose the license, and update the EU fund number. Newer versions of the uploaded files can be added at any time. Each document will be assigned with a unique DOI.

Once uploaded, the library staff will review the request (identity and affiliation). Only verified Technion users will be approved to upload their works to the Technion community.

Curation Policy:

• All of Zenodo’s policies apply to the Technion page.
• The Technion shall bear no responsibility regarding the content uploaded to the page.
• Content uploaded by non-Technion users (and/or Technion affiliates) at the time of uploading to the page shall be removed.

If you have any questions or requests, please use the Technion Libraries contact us form.

Most of the publishers do not allow depositing the final version of the papers. 

There are several ways the verify the approved version to be uploaded in the selected repository:

1. Information on the publisher’s website (most recommended). 

2. Use the SHERPA/RoMEO service to check the copyright policies. 

3. Review your license agreements between you and the publisher.

One may only self-archive only after the termination of the embargo period if it exists. Some publishers specify the embargo periods for each journal on their websites (i.e. for Elsevier). 

For more information about copyrights.

Answer:

Once ensuring their copyrights, authors can provide Open Access to their work (final or pre-print version) in accordance with the publisher’s terms.

Main options to retain the author’s copyrights:

• Use the Scholar’s Copyright Addendum Engine in the “Science Commons” webpage in order to generate an addendum to attach to the publication agreement. The addendum should state which rights the author will retain after sending an article to the publisher.
• Authors may also request to sign a “License to Publish” instead of a full transfer of rights. this means that the authors retain all rights that are not explicitly licensed to the publisher.
• Authors that wish to provide liberal re-use rights for users, while retaining their copyrights of the article, may ask the publisher to release their work under a more permissive Creative Commons license. More details:
  • Creative Commons license. 
  • Choosing a Creative Commons license.
  • Understanding Open Access – How open, what right and what conditions for the use of your work (by you and others)

What about ResearchGate, Personal/laboratory websites, and other Scholar-social-media interfaces? These websites are NOT scientific repositories. One should consult the publisher before uploading any kind of version of their paper.

For more information about copyrights.

OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit (for OA books and more)

Answer:

• Uploading a paper to a personal website (homepage, laboratory group page).
• Uploading full texts on social media websites (ResearchGate, ‘Academia’ and more).
• Using illegal platforms (i.e. SciHub).
• Disregarding the terms and conditions specified in the publishing agreement.

If you need to deposit your research data, you can choose from a variety of repositories while taking some important considerations (from Jisc).

For research data management guidelines at the Technion.

“Horizon Europe” is the European Commission’s research and innovation program for 2021-2027
For more information on the program.

Three major changes are emphasized:

• Publication fees eligible for funding – Only in journals that are fully Open Access (and NOT in hybrid journals). Read more about the differences between Gold and Hybrid open access journals.
  • In order to assist with this requirement, Horizon Europe has recently launched the “Open Research Europe” platform. It is a free, peer-reviewed, and open-access publishing service that serves as an alternative to the Gold open access route, which includes publication fees. Open Research Europe is NOT a repository for pre-prints nor a journal. It is used only for original papers, so one cannot “deposit” published journal articles nor their other versions to Open Research Europe. FAQ about Open Research Europe.
  • If you choose to publish in a journal that is fully Open Access, please refer to our designated page that will help you to ensure the quality of the journal you have chosen.

• Immediate open access – beneficiaries must give access to the peer-reviewed contents immediately with the publication date itself (No embargo is allowed) and through trusted repositories.
• Data Management Plan (DMP) – It is now mandatory to include a DMP in granted projects.
  • Important aspects that should be covered in your DMP and a useful template.
  • For research data management guidelines at the Technion, including “Horizon Europe” DMP template recommendations.