UNTIL VERY RECENTLY, AUTHORS WHO
wanted their works to be widely available had little
choice but to submit their works to publishers who
took assignments of the authors’ copyrights and
exercised them according to a proprietary “all rights
reserved” model.1 The advent of global digital networks
now provides authors who write to be read with excit-
ing new options for communicating their ideas broadly.
One of these options is open access.
The basic idea of open access is that it makes
copyrightable works available without all of the access
barriers associated with the “all rights reserved”
model. These can take the form of price barriers and
permission barriers. 2 Open access typically comes in
two forms. What has come to be known as gratis open
access is the practice of making a work available online
ree of charge (also called public access). The term
libre open access (also called full open access) refers to
the practice of making a work available online free of
charge and with some additional reuse rights, typically
granted through a Creative Commons license. Gratis
open access removes price barriers, whereas libre open
access additionally removes at least some permission
barriers, allowing users to copy, redistribute, and/or
adapt a work. Open access contrasts with more tradi-
tional models of restricted-access publishing in which
copies of works are made directly available only to
paying customers.
Authors who are interested in increasing access to
their works may want to understand whether elimi-
nating cost and permissions barriers is a good option
for them and, if so, how they might release their
works under open access terms. Other authors may
be required by their employer or funding agency to
comply with an open access policy. Still other authors
may be skeptical about whether open access is compat-
ible with their publication goals—including rigorous
peer review, prestige, or monetary compensation—and
want to learn more.
A note on terminology: Many open access proponents and some
research funders
3 do not consider a work truly openly accessible
if it only meets gratis open access requirements. Indeed, only
libre open access is compliant with most major international
statements that define open access.4 For readability, we use the
term open access in this guide to describe the practice of making
a work available to readers free of charge on the Internet, regard-
less of whether subsequent reuse is permitted. The distinction is
important, however, and we try to make clear in our discussion
below whether we are referring to removal of only price, or both
price and permission barriers. Another way to think about open
access is along a continuum that considers variables including
both price and permissions barriers. If you would like to learn
more about the spectrum of open access, we recommend the
guide How Open Is It?.
Authors Alliance is a nonprofit organization that
promotes authorship for the public good by supporting
authors who write to be read.6 Pursuant to this mission,
Authors Alliance created this guide to help authors
understand and evaluate opportunities to make their
works openly accessible. In this way, Authors Alliance
seeks to help authors further their interest in
disseminating knowledge and products of the
imagination broadly and to enhance the public’s
access to and reuse of these works.
