Open Access (OA)

Open Access (OA) refers to free, immediate, permanent, online access to digital full-text scientific and scholarly material, primarily research articles published in peer-reviewed journals. There are limited copyright and licensing restrictions on open-access articles, meaning that anyone with Internet access may read, download, copy, and/or distribute them. A primary advantage to authors who make their articles openly accessible is that their research impact is maximized due to a wider audience.

Open Access journals are peer-reviewed journals that provide free, online access to their articles. They do not charge subscription fees to readers or libraries. Instead, they cover their costs through publication fees to authors. The WVU Libraries have purchased institutional memberships in BioMed Central and Public Library of Science which reduce the required author publication fees for WVU faculty researchers. The Libraries have also negotiated favorable terms for WVU authors in Oxford University Press Open Access Journals. These three arrangements are in process as of March 2008. Other agreements may follow.