Libraries HomeOpen Access at the University of Oregon
Open Access at the University of Oregon
"Open Access" is generally defined as web-based publication where the material is free for all users to read and use. In academic scholarship, peer reviewed open access publishing is rapidly growing in popularity as an alternative or supplement to traditional venues for scholarship. The Directory of Open Access Journals lists more than 4000 scholarly open access publications, where the content is quality controlled (usually via anonymous peer review) and represents "scholarship" of the sort that might be considered for tenure and promotion. Many additional journals offer open access for subsets of their articles or limited open access (for example, after an embargo period). Many libraries and researchers provide supplemental open access to peer reviewed publications through deposit of copies of their work in an institutional repository or web site, perhaps after an embargo period.
Open Access is alive and well at UO. This page lists some of the activities of UO people in support of open access publishing.
UO Authors
Many UO authors publish in open access journals or make their work available on Scholars' Bank, the UO's institutional repository. Many deposit preprints of their work in other discipline-specific open access repositories such as arXiv and REpeC, as well.
UO Open Access journals
Several departments at the University of Oregon sponsor Open Access journals. The following list is incomplete. If you know of additional scholarly OA journals that are either sponsored by a UO department, hosted on UO servers, or edited by a UO faculty member, please let us know:
| Journal name | UO affiliation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Chapman Journal (title varies) |
Published and hosted by the Clark Honors College | open access anonymously reviewed student-edited ejournal |
| CultureWork | Published by the UO Department of Arts & Administration Editor: Julie Voelker-Morris; Robert Voelker-Morris (UO) |
open access electronic magazine |
| Ecotone: Journal of Environmental Studies | Published by the UO Environmental Studies Program | open access student-edited ejournal |
| Etude: New Voices in Literary Nonfiction | Published and hosted by the Literary Nonfiction program at the UO School of Journalism and Communication Editors: Lauren Kessler et al. (UO, Journalism & Communication) |
open access quality controlled literary magazine |
| Humanist Studies & the Digital Age | Published by the UO Libraries on behalf of the Department of Romance Languages Editor: Massimo Lollini (UO, Romance Languages) |
open access peer reviewed scholarly journal |
| InterNationality | Published by the Oregon Consortium for International and Area Studies. Editors: Carlos Aguirre, Dennis Galvan. managing Editor: Clayton J. Cleveland | open access peer-reviewed scholarly journal |
| Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation | Published and hosted by the UO School of Law | subscription + open access quality controlled scholarly student-edited journal |
| Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media | Co-editor: Julia Lesage (UO, English) "Jump Cut ... is not affiliated with or supported by any institution." |
open access peer-reviewed scholarly journal |
| Konturen | Published and hosted by the UO Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures Editor: Jeffrey S. Librett (UO, German) |
open access peer-reviewed scholarly journal |
| New Journal of Physics | Published by the Institute of Physics, this journal has seen substantial contributions from one of its editorial board members, Steve Kevan (UO, Physics) | open access peer-reviewed scholarly journal |
| Oregon Law Review | Published and hosted by the UO Law School |
subscription + open access quality controlled student-edited scholarly journal |
| Oregon Quarterly | Published by the UO Office of Communications Editor: Guy Maynard, UO |
subscription + open access general-interest magazine |
| Oregon Review of International Law | Published and hosted by the UO Law School |
subscription + open access quality controlled student-edited scholarly journal |
Journal Hosting at the UO Libraries
The Libraries are now offering hosting and support for open access UO e-journals. If you are the editor of an open access journal or are developing a new open access e-journal, the UO Libraries would love to partner with you to provide e-journal hosting and related services. Contact SCIS to discuss the possibilities in greater depth.
Funds supporting UO authors
Although many open access journals are free both to readers and to authors, others operate with an "author pays" business model. In such cases, author fees can be a significant impediment to open access publication. The UO is developing initiatives to assist UO authors with page charges, and to provide other support that reduces the barriers to open access publication.
The UO Libraries has established a grant program, the "Open Access Publishing Support Fund," to pay a portion of the author fees for UO authors publishing in open access publications.
Institutional Commitments to Open Access Publishing
The UO has a history of formal commitments to open access publishing.
Two UO Senate resolutions encourage UO authors to use authors' addenda when publishing. Such addenda clarify copyright transfer agreements, and reserve sufficient rights to the author to allow him or her to distribute the author's own work after publication through means such as Scholars' Bank. Resolution US 0708-17 was passed at the Senate Meeting on February 13, 2008. The Senate then revisited the issue, and as followup, on May 28, 2008 the senate also passed US 0708-20, which "strongly" recommended the use of an author's addendum.
In addition, two UO departments, the UO Libraries and Romance Languages, have resolved to mandate deposit of all scholarly journal articles from their departments into Scholars' Bank.
- text of the Romance Languages faculty resolution.
- text of the UO Libraries faculty resolution. library policy:
Additional Information
Simmons College maintains a popular wiki with information about open access, the Open Access Directory. Examples of information maintained there include:
- Timeline of the Open Access movement
- Bibliography of Open Access
- Conferences and workshops related to Open Access
Another very useful resource is the Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook (OASIS).
