Publishing Open Access

Open Access is the free-to-read, immediate, online availability of research articles, data, code, software, and other forms of scholarly output, coupled with the right to use these materials fully in the digital environment. Open Access typically refers to scholarly publications like articles and books. It intersects with movements like Open Science, Open Education, and Open Data.

As SPARC writes, “[s]haring knowledge is a human right. Everyone should be able to access and contribute to the knowledge that shapes our world.” However, this remains an aspirational goal: research paid for by public funds and by the salaries of faculty at public institutions may be published in venues requiring exorbitant subscription (or article publication) fees that only wealthy institutions can afford. Open Access is a redress for these problems of access, equity, and economics.

For Pitt authors, the ULS supports your ability to publish Open Access through:

No cost immediate Open Access publishing. The ULS has agreements with a growing number of scholarly publishers allowing corresponding authors with a Pitt affiliation to publish Open Access at no cost to you, the researcher.
Understanding and complying with funder mandates for Open Access Publishing and Data Sharing
Help navigating copyright and licensing decisions. As an author, in most cases you retain copyright of your work when publishing Open Access. Library experts can help you understand the licenses that are available to you, and which may be most appropriate to your publishing situation.
Assistance selecting a venue for Open Access publishing or deposit. Library experts can help you identify, assess, and understand the terms of publishing your work in Open Access journals and/or depositing your work in Open Scholarly Repositories.
Assistance depositing to our institutional repository, D-Scholarship@Pitt. D-Scholarship is a self-archiving repository and an option for sharing your scholarship with an Open Access license, particularly for author’s copies of articles and otherwise unpublished works.

We are happy to assist with any of these services. You can reach us through our Ask US service.