Demystifying Open Access

Open access has received a great deal of coverage in the press and blogosphere of late with the recent policy announcements by bodies such as the European Commission, DFID and Research Councils UK that all research that they fund must be available open access in coming years. What does this mean? This presentation will address common myths about open access and answer questions including: What is the difference between the green route and the gold, and how do they each work? How is open access funded? Are open access journal articles peer reviewed and ISI listed? Is open access only about journal articles; what about other types of scholarly outputs? How does open access link to other forms of openness such as open education resources and open research? Does open access mean giving away your copyright? How does open licensing work? In essence the talk will explain the opportunities open access provides academics to improve the online visibility of their outputs