2023 definition from the OSTP and the National Science and Technology Council: “The principle and practice of making research products and processes available to all, while respecting diverse cultures, maintaining security and privacy, and fostering collaborations, reproducibility, and equity.”
When you choose to publish your article open access, you will retain your copyright, and you will choose a Creative Commons license to have on top of your copyright. A Creative Commons license tells those who download your article how they are able to use it.
Please talk to your subject librarian if you have specific questions about this agreement, the Creative Commons licenses, or the benefits of publishing open access.
Find out more at our Services for Authors Guide. On the same page, check out our Support for Publishing workshop series offered each semester.
Green, Gold, and Diamond are notable models of OA publishing that describe how you make your scholarship openly accessible and the costs (or lack thereof) associated with it. Open Access publications may be accessed through a journal or publisher, through an author's personal website, or through other openly accessible platforms. The Sherpa Romeo database and the Directory of Open Access Journals platform provide information about the type of open access provided by individual journals.
Although the Penn Libraries does not have funding to support APCs (author processing charges) to publish in open access journals, if you are looking to publish in an open access journal, all of the journals listed below have received subscription or membership support from the Penn Libraries, which should allow you to publish without a fee or at a reduced fee. Please contact your subject librarian for more information. This list will likely continue to evolve:
