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* This page is part of the [http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/hoap Harvard Open Access Project] (HOAP).

* I wrote these notes as an online handout for a [http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2012/10/OAweek talk] at the Berkman Center on October 23, 2012. &#151;[http://bit.ly/petersuber Peter Suber].
** These notes focus on [http://bit.ly/oa-overview open access] for peer-reviewed research articles and their unrefereed preprints. They do not cover books, theses and dissertations, conference presentations, datasets, courseware, audio, video, multimedia, or source code, although I may add pages on other categories over time. The live audience for the talk consisted of Harvard people, which explains the many Harvard references. But the sources cited will be useful for scholars anywhere. The full title of the talk was, ''How to Make Your Research Open Access (Whether You're at Harvard or Not)''. 
** Now that I've got the notes online, I [mailto:peter.suber@gmail.com welcome] suggestions.
** This handout should be more useful than my slides from the talk. I keep it up to date, link to the sites I mention, and use complete sentences. But FYI, [https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1F7M6I8PyCGDXmfE96llnu21S8Eu_rx_ubwUANBNMeEU/edit here are the slides].
** Also see Chapter 10 ("Self-help") of my book, ''[[Open Access (the book)|Open Access]]'' (MIT Press, 2012).

* Suggested short URL for this page = [http://bit.ly/how-oa bit.ly/how-oa]

== Publish in an OA journal ("gold" OA) ==

* Find a suitable OA journal. Go to the [http://www.doaj.org/ Directory of Open Access Journals] (DOAJ) and browse by field.
** As you scan, bear in mind that some OA journals will be high in quality, impact, and prestige. Some will be low.
** Some will use liberal open licenses, like [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 CC-BY]. Some will use more restrictive open licenses like [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0 CC-BY-NC] or [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0 CC-BY-NC-ND]. Some will offer only gratis OA without open licenses.
** Some will charge publication fees (also called ''article processing charges'' or APCs), and some will not. 

* If the best journal for your purposes charges a publication fee, see whether your funder or university will pay it.
** There's no complete list of funders willing to pay publication fees on behalf of grantees. But see the [http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/apcfaq/grants incomplete list] from BioMed Central. If the article you want to publish is based on funded research, check with your funding agency directly.
** [http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/OA_journal_funds Many universities] are willing to pay publication fees on behalf of faculty.
** If you're at Harvard, apply to the [http://osc.hul.harvard.edu/HOPE/ Harvard Open-Access Publishing] (HOPE) fund. For a Harvard-based project to spread HOPE-like funds to other institutions, see the [http://www.oacompact.org/ Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity] (COPE).
** If you're worried about paying fees out of pocket, here's some background to help you estimate the odds. Although charging publication fees is the best-known business model for peer-reviewed OA journals, it's not the most common. Only [http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/pamphlet/2009/05/29/what-percentage-of-open-access-journals-charge-publication-fees/ about 30%] of peer-reviewed OA journals overall charge publication fees. When OA journals do charge fees, the fees are usually paid by funders (59%) or by universities (24%). Only 12% of the time are they paid by authors out of pocket. See Table 4 of the comprehensive [http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.5260 Study of Open Access Publishing] (SOAP). That means that only 3.6% of authors who publish in OA journals overall (12% of 31%) pay fees out of pocket. At the same time, [http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/10/124 about 50%] of articles published in peer-reviewed OA journals are published in fee-based journals. Hence, if we count by article rather than by journal, then only 6% of authors who publish in OA journals overall (12% of 50%) pay fees out of pocket. These figures are averages, and the rates depend significantly on field and type of employer; see Figure 8 of the [http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.5260 SOAP study].

* If you find an otherwise promising OA journal in your field, but have never heard of it, investigate it. Network with trusted colleagues to do so.
** Have you heard of any of the editors?  Are they respected in the field?  Are the journal's papers any good?
** Is the publisher on Jeffrey Beall's list of suspect or [http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/ predatory publishers]? Is the journal on his list of suspect or [http://scholarlyoa.com/individual-journals/ predatory journals]? If so, avoid the journal or deepen your investigation.
** Don't assume that unknown journals are weak. Low profile does not entail low quality, especially when journals are new. And all OA journals are new. Most new journals, both OA and non-OA, face the [http://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/4322577 vicious circle] of needing excellent submissions to generate prestige, and needing prestige to attract excellent submissions. Don't fault a journal for being only partway through the process of escaping this circle. Even new journals excellent from birth need time to develop a reputation for quality matching their actual quality. When an honest, new, and little-known journal is struggling for visibility, you can help it escape the circle by submitting some of your best work. In the words of Harvard's [http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k77982&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup143448 Faculty Advisory Council on the Library] (April 2012), "move prestige to open access."
** Is the publisher a [http://www.oaspa.org/members.php member] of the [http://www.oaspa.org/ Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association] (OASPA)? OASPA has a code of conduct requiring peer review, disclosure of a journal's vetting process, fees, and ownership, and prohibiting spam to solicit papers or members of editorial boards. Honest OA publishers might not yet be members of OASPA. But honest publishers should be encouraged to join, if only to help spread the OASPA code of conduct to more publishers and more journals. If your investigation doesn't turn up evidence you trust one way or another, then follow the rule to avoid publishers that are not members of OASPA, and don't hesitate to tell them that you are doing so.
<!-- If you'd seriously consider an unknown OA journal, if only you could be sure it complied with the OASPA code of conduct, then tell the publisher you'd submit work to it if it would submit to OASPA's membership review. If you're invited to join the editorial board of an OA journal you haven't heard of, you could reply that you'd be happy to join you it if it would join OASPA. -->

* When you find a suitable OA journal, then submit your manuscript, just as you would to a conventional journal. 

* If you don't find a suitable OA journal, check again when you publish your next paper. Things are changing fast.
** Just don't conclude that you can't yet make your article OA. If you don't make it gold OA (through a journal), you can make it green OA (through a repository). Details in the section on [[#Deposit in an OA repository ("green" OA)|green OA]], below.

== Deposit in an OA repository ("green" OA) == 

* Find a suitable institutional or disciplinary repository for your work.
** Institutional repositories try to capture the research output of an institution. Disciplinary repositories try to capture the research output of a field.
** Consult the [http://www.opendoar.org/ Directory of Open Access Repositories] (OpenDOAR) or the [http://roar.eprints.org/ Registry of Open Access Repositories] (ROAR). Both list both sorts of repository. Also see the [http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Disciplinary_repositories list of disciplinary repositories] at the [http://oad.simmons.edu Open Access Directory].

* Harvard's institutional repository is called [http://dash.harvard.edu/ Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard] or DASH.
** Anyone with an active Harvard ID may [http://osc.hul.harvard.edu/dash/quicksubmit deposit] in DASH. Students and Fellows: that includes you.

* If there isn't an OA repository in your institution or field, then consider a universal repository like [http://www.academia.edu/ Academia], [http://figshare.com/ Figshare], [http://opendepot.org/ OpenDepot], or [http://www.zenodo.org/ Zenodo].
<!-- formerly included [http://www.mendeley.com/ Mendeley] on this list -->
** You could also post your work to your personal home page. But repositories are a better long-term solution. They take steps toward digital preservation, they provide persistent URLs, and they will continue to hold your work and make it OA after you change jobs or die.

* Most of the time, you may lawfully make your work OA through a repository even if you published in a non-OA journal. That is, most non-OA publishers give standing permission for green OA. Unfortunately this is the best-kept secret of OA. Details in the section on [[#Permissions|permissions]] below.
<!-- ** Hence, if the best journal in your field isn't an OA journal, and if you need the imprimatur of that sort of journal for your career, and if your work is good enough to be accepted by that journal, then by all means publish there. But don't fail to make your peer-reviewed manuscript OA through a repository at the same time. -->

== Permissions ==

* No matter which path you choose ("gold" or "green" OA), the journal or repository will need permission to make your work OA. But permission from whom? The answer depends on what happened to the rights after you wrote the article.

* When you write a new article, you are the copyright holder. You needn't apply for a copyright or register the work. It's automatic. If you haven't yet transferred rights to others, then permission for OA comes from you.
** You may authorize publication in an OA journal (gold OA). Just sign the publishing contract.
** You may authorize OA through a repository (green OA) for an ''unpublished'' preprint. Just make the deposit and click on the box (or equivalent) to affirm that you have the right to do so. However, if you want to deposit a ''published'' article, then in most cases you will already have transferred some rights to a publisher. Hence, see next.

* If you want to deposit a ''published'' article in a repository, then the repository will need permission from the relevant rightsholder.
** If you retained key rights when you published, which is rare, then you may authorize OA through a repository on your own. You needn't consult or involve the publisher. 
** If you transferred key rights to the publisher, which is common, then you will need the publisher's permission.
** However, [http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/statistics.php most] conventional or non-OA publishers give standing permission for author-initiated green OA. 
*** To see whether your journal or publisher gives this kind of standing permission, read your publishing agreement with care. Or look up the journal or publisher in the [http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php SHERPA RoMEO database]. 
*** In most cases, this kind of standing permission for green OA applies to the text approved by peer review, not to the published edition. To take advantage of this permission, you'll need to put your hands on that version of the text, without any subsequent copy editing, and without the journal's pagination or look-and-feel. Tip for the future: always retain the peer-reviewed manuscript of every article you publish.
*** SHERPA also maintains a shorter [http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/PDFandIR.php?la=en list] of publishers who give standing permission for authors to deposit the ''published editions'' of articles in an OA repository.
** If your journal or publisher does ''not'' give standing permission for green OA, then try one of these strategies.
*** Ask for permission. Many publishers who don't give standing permission will agree to case-by-case requests. 
*** Use an [http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Author_addenda author addendum]. An author addendum is a proposed revision to the publishing agreement, written by a lawyer, giving the author the right to authorize OA (and sometimes other rights as well). Because it's only a proposed revision, publishers may accept it or reject it. 

* For standing permission to make your future articles OA, without depending on publishers for that permission, work toward a [http://osc.hul.harvard.edu/modelpolicy Harvard-style OA policy] at your institution.
** Today eight of Harvard's nine schools have effective [http://osc.hul.harvard.edu/ OA policies].
** The [http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/hoap Harvard Open Access Project] (HOAP) can help you with a policy at your institution. Also see the HOAP guide to [[Good practices for university open-access policies|good practices for university OA policies]]. (Disclosure: I write and edit the guide with Stuart Shieber.)
** Through Harvard-style OA policies, faculty grant the institution non-exclusive rights to their future scholarly articles, including the right to authorize OA through the institutional repository. This assures that faculty may make their work OA...
*** even when they publish in a non-OA journal,
*** even when the non-OA journal does not give standing permission for green OA,
*** and even when faculty members have not negotiated special access terms or permissions with their publishers.