Open Access Publications
The definition of open access to a contribution according to Berlin Declaration (2003) includes:
- free, irrevocable access granted to everyone worldwide, with a license to copy and re-use subject to proper attribution of authorship;
- depositing a copy of the contribution in an online archive maintained by istitutions that seek to enable open access
This two-step definition allows open access to be implemented in many ways or "roads".
Green Road to Open Access
Authors deposit their contribution in an open repository (including UNITN - IRIS) free of charge. According to the publishers' rules, the uploaded text can be a pre-print (non-refereed article), a postprint (refereed article without editorial layout) or an editorial version (including editorial layout).
Strong points: Free, easy to implement
Weak points: Embargo period sometimes not supported by the funding agencies, access might be limited to the postprint (no editorial version)
Gold Road to Open Access
Authors make their contributions available in open access by publishing them in initiatives granting the access to everyone. Such initiatives usually ask for a fee to the author: the so-called APCs (Article Processing Charges): in this case the publication will be immediately accessible online in its editorial version. No embargo can be applied if the APCs have been paid. The gold road can be of two types
- Gold Open access journals that are free to the public but with a co-payment of editorial and publication costs. The journal is completely open access.
- Paid commercial (hybrid) journals: the journal does not grant open access by default. However, contributions could be opened under a paid option
Strong points: No embargo period, open access to final (editorial) version
Weak Points: Usually expensive
Resources
UNITN suggests to the authors to follow a Think - Check - Submit procedure when submitting contributions to journals:
- Think: when you browse and select the journal mainly according to scientific features (e.g.: does the journal fit with the topic of my contribution, is the journal trusted, etc)
- Check: use online resources to verify the open access policies of the journal (e.g.: is the journal's open access policy compatible with the one of my funding agency? Are there any Article Processing Charges? Which open access roads could I pursue, etc.)
- Submit: proceed to the submission
To check for Open Access policies, you can refer to:
- UNITN Open Access reference page
- Directory of Open Access Journals: A directory where you can look for the journal you picked, check its open access status and browse other related information in this regard
- Sherpa/ROMEO: a tool to analyze in depth journals' open access policies, including an explanation of all the allowed ways to make a submitted contribution open. This tool is integrated into IRIS.
Requesting Funds to cover Article Processing Charges (APC) at CIMeC
Last update: September 2021
CIMeC intends to establish a permanent “Open Science Publications Fund” to partially support the costs for open publications in high-impact journals
- Who can apply and how?
CIMeC PIs, whose availability in “publication funds” or “free funds” (e.g., overheads, conto terzi, PRIN open funds, start-up packages) from on-going or past projects does not exceed €20,000, at the time of the request. Requests should be accompanied with a short cover letter explaining the reason for this specific request, and any particular circumstances that should be considered when evaluating its priority. The application should be submitted after the first peer review round if the result is positive.
- How much is the support?
The PI’s self-contribution is €800 and CIMeC covers the remaining costs of publication. In case of need, the PI can ask CIMeC a loan to cover the self-contribution, which has to be repaid to theCenter within the following year using any funds that become available including next-year’s personal allowance.
- What kinds of open publications are eligible?
The funds will be given only for open-access publications in high quality journals (i.e., journal ranking Q1 for the scientific sector, according to the Scimago website). The journals must be ones where there is no possibility to publish in closed-access mode, without payment (i.e., so called ‘hybrid’ journals will not be considered, see above). The Giunta will check which publications are eligible, and, in case the requests exceed available funds for this action, will create a priority rank. The evaluation and priority ranking would be made according to the following criteria (in decreasing order of importance):
- a) not having received these funds yet;
- b) juniority;
- c) having made at least one grant application in the previous academic year.
Requests will be evaluated by the Giunta in February, June and October.
The following publishers/journals will not be covered by this fund: Frontiers; Hindawi; MDPI; Scientific Reports; others will be added. For further discussion of these publishers, see the open debates on these 'unofficial' sites:
Predatory Reports
Bbjoern Brembs blog
Think. Check. Submit
UniMilano report on MDPI
UNITN Agreements
Before asking for this support, check the cost of the publication might be covered by an university agreement with the publisher on the UNITN webpage.
UNITN webpage includes the latest national agreements, including ACS (American Chemical Society), Cambridge University Press - CUP, De Gruyter, Elsevier, Emerald, Springer and Wiley, as well as a SCOAP3 agreement that regulates the open access publication of research results relating to the field of particle physics.
Think Open @ CIMeC Resources on Topic
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