Benefits of Open Access to Early Career Researchers

Nancy Pontika, PhD CORE

Open University Email: nancy.pontika@open.ac.uk

Twitter: @nancypontika

Universita Degli Studi Di Trieste, 7 July 2015

What is publishing?• Process of making information available to the general public.

“Publish or perish”

• Traditionally, this is achieved by engaging with a publisher – resulting in the publication of a journal article, book chapter or book.

• Using a publisher is still the most common way of disseminating the results of research.

• Universities also offer means of making research available – (e.g. Open Access Repositories)

• There are means of ‘self-publishing’.

Publishing process • A manuscript is submitted to the publisher (pre-print)

• Reviewed internally by editorial staff

• Peer reviewed - normally externally, by one or more expert academics (post-print)• Academic publishers conduct external, independent peer-

review, which lends authority and prestige

• Production – of the final PDF/Print Copy (publisher’s final version)

• Publication of the paper

Using a publisher – considerations• Which publication would you be publishing in? Is it well respected?

• What publications do staff and students read? What do(n’t) they like about them? Opinions can be based on personal taste.

• Does the journal have an Impact Factor or other indicator of prestige?

• What are the acceptance rates? Are you being realistic about where you are pitching your article?

• What is the nature of the agreement you have to sign with them? Will you be able to retain any rights?

• Is it a commercial publisher or a society publisher? Or both?

• Do you need to obtain permissions for 3rd party copyright? Your publisher should guide you on this.

How does publishing work?• A manuscript is submitted to the publisher

• Reviewed internally

• Peer reviewed - normally externally

• Production – of the final PDF/Print Copy

• Publication of the paper

Publishing qualities

REGISTRATION CERTIFICATION AWARENESS ARCHIVING

Intellectual Property

Research validity certification

Research accessibility assurance

Research Output preservation for future use

How open access applies

REGISTRATION CERTIFICATION AWARENESS ARCHIVING

Intellectual Property

Research validity certification

Research accessibility assurance

Research Output preservation for future use

Research Idea

Receives funding

Research Conduction

Publication

Research Cycle

Who conducts research?

How much does it cost to access it?

Eventually who can really access it?

What can I do as an early career

researcher to show my research work to the

world?

It is not as difficult as you may think…• Publish in open access journals • Deposit (self-archive) into a repository

(institutional or disciplinary/subject) • Deposit your data in a data repository • Identify yourself and your work • Use social media to create a research societal

impact

Publish in open access journals But doesn’t it cost authors a

lot of money to publish in open access journals!

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/rossmounce/oa4-ecr

Cost – free

Fee waivers

Low cost – high quality

Publish in open access journalsWhat about predatory journals?

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/rossmounce/oa4-ecr

Deposit into a repository Where can I find one? Who

can help me locate them?

Universita Degli Studi Di Trieste Institutional Repository

Disciplinary Repositories – http://oad.simmons.edu

Deposit data http://oad.simmons.edu

Research Conduction

Research Data Publication

What is the big deal with

opening data and sharing

lately?

Identify yourself and your work How many

people have my name?

Use social media Like Twitter, Facebook,

Blogs? Is this acceptable for researchers?

Your research project

I open my research

data

I publish in open access

journals

I deposit in open

repositories

I use social media to share it with the world

Grazie!

Domande?