Some authors who see the potential of open access may
still have reservations about whether open access is
right for them. Some of these reservations are based
on myths about open access and can be resolved by
clearing up misunderstandings. Other reservations
reflect the current limitations of open access options
available to some authors. Fortunately, open access
opportunities are growing as the open access move-
ment spreads through more author communities.
Existing solutions and encouraging developments are
detailed below to address authors’ common reserva-
tions about open access.
Open access is compatible
with peer review and prestige
Peer review, selective submission standards, and other
attributes of prestigious publication are indepen-
dent of the openness of the publication. Some open
access publications apply the highest standards of
quality control, some proprietary publications publish
low-quality works, and vice versa.
Introduction 11
It is true, however, that some new open access
publications do not yet command the same level of
prestige as the best-established, conventional pub-
lications. The prestige of publishing a work with a
leading conventional publisher may dissuade some
authors from publishing with an open access publisher.
This is particularly true of junior faculty whose tenure
prospects may depend on a publication record in top
proprietary outlets.
We expect this will lessen as open access pub-
lishers establish their reputations and proliferate
across disciplines, as existing publishers adopt more
open practices, as more research funders require open
access to the works they fund, and as senior scholars
signal the value of open access. Encouragingly, an
increasing number of open access journals have already
achieved high regard in their disciplines, as described
in Chapter 5.
In the meantime, conventional publication and
open access are not mutually exclusive. For example,
many conventional publishers allow authors who
publish with them to also upload the authors’ final
versions of their works to open access repositories. In
such cases, authors can benefit from the imprint of
a well-established print publisher while still making
their works openly accessible. (For more information,
please see Chapter 7.)
Authors do not always have to pay to
make their works openly accessible
Some authors have reservations about open access
because they think they will need to pay to make
their works openly accessible. This is not always true.
Although some open access publishers do charge a fee
to cover the cost of publishing a work, many authors
make their works openly accessible without incurring
any costs. In fact, the majority of open access journals
charge no author-side fees at all.7 Even where pub-
lishers charge publication fees, there are many ways
that authors can mitigate those costs, as discussed in
Chapter 5. Moreover, depositing a work in an institu-
tional open access repository is always free for authors.
Open access options are available
for book authors
The traditional practice in book publishing has been
for authors to work with conventional publishers,
typically assigning their copyrights in exchange for
royalty streams from the sales of their books. Publish-
ers may be reluctant to agree to open access because
they believe that it will undermine books sales. Authors
who depend on royalties likely share this concern.
Moreover, this book publishing convention still works
well for many authors.
However, some authors are excited by the
potential of open access book publishing to increase the
audience for their works. Open access book publishing
options are increasing for these authors.
Many publishers are developing programs to
make books openly accessible.8 For example, the
University of California Press recently launched Luminos,
an open access publishing program for monographs.9
Authors who publish with Luminos can make digital
editions of their books openly accessible under the Uni-
versity of California Press imprint. Open Humanities Press
has also launched an open access program for mono-
graphs, making the books it publishes in print available
as full-text digital editions published under open
licenses.
10 Additionally, many university presses make
academic books openly available in the Open Access Pub-
lishing in European Networks (“OAPEN”) Library. 14
Authors can also make their self-published books
openly accessible by uploading electronic versions to
open access repositories or personal websites. Institu-
tions that host repositories will sometimes also offer
book-formatting resources for authors who deposit
book-length works in their repositories. For example,
eScholarship, the University of California’s institutional
repository, provides authors tools to create digital
versions of their books and also provides University of
California authors print-on-demand services.12 (For
more information on open access repositories, please
see Chapter 5.)
Additionally, book authors who are interested
in open access may choose to negotiate with conven-
tional publishers to publish their books in print but
also retain the rights to openly license their books,
as described in Chapter 7. Authors who have already
assigned their rights to conventional publishers may be
able to exercise or negotiate for rights reversions that
would allow them to make their books openly accessi-
ble. For more on this possibility, please see the
Authors who make their works openly accessible
can require attribution
Some authors are concerned that open access neces-
sarily means others will be allowed to use their works
without giving them credit. This is not true. Although
some authors opt to allow others to use their openly
accessible work without retaining a legal right to insist
on credit, the vast majority of authors select license
terms that require others to give them credit for their
works. (Please see Chapter 4 to learn more about open
access licensing.) Furthermore, even if unattributed
copying of an open access work does not amount to
copyright infringement, it may still amount to plagia-
rism—thus running afoul of longstanding norms within
scholarly and publishing communities.
Authors who make their works openly accessible
can still preserve the integrity of their works
Some authors are concerned that the integrity of their
works will be compromised if they make their works
openly accessible. An author might worry, for example,
that her work will be modified in a way that distorts
its meaning and discredits her. However, authors can
use license terms to control how others are allowed
to use their works (subject to some limitations, such
as fair use). Open access licenses often include pro-
visions that protect against misuse, prevent loss of
integrity, and protect author reputation. For example,
Creative Commons licenses require attribution, unless
the author does not want to be attributed; include an
obligation to indicate whether an author’s work has
been modified or not, even if those modifications are
trivial; and require users to link back to the original
if a link is provided. In addition, authors who do not
want to permit others to modify their works can select
license terms that allow free access and distribution of
verbatim copies but not adaptations. More information
on open access licenses can be found in Chapter 4.
Finally, scholarly norms for citation and regarding pla-
giarism are not supplanted when authors openly license
their works.
