public domain image from the Library of Congress

To celebrate Open Access Week, we’ve compiled a list of resources that you may find helpful in learning about OA and putting it into practice. Whether you are new to open access, looking for more resources to increase your collection of OA content, or interested in openly publishing your work, this list is a great place to start.

Read on to learn more (and get a special OA Week discount at the Authors Alliance store!)

1. First up is our guidebook, Understanding Open Access: When, Why, & How To Make Your Work Openly Accessible. The guide addresses common questions and concerns and provides real-life tips and tools that authors can use to work with publishers, institutions, and funders to make their works openly accessible. The guide, along with OA success stories, an OA FAQ, and other materials, is available in digital and book format on our Open Access Resource page.
2. The ALA Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) recently published a comprehensive list of tools and tips on how and where to find OA works online—including unpaywalled articles, preprints, and materials contained in OA repositories.
3. Speaking of preprints, ASAPBio has a new preprint licensing FAQ to help researchers compare different Creative Commons licenses and make informed decisions about how to apply them to preprint articles.
4. Another approach to learning about and managing rights is available thanks to the SPARC Author Addendum. Authors can request that the Addendum be incorporated into the publisher’s agreement to ensure that authors retain certain rights in their own works. As SPARC says, “Be a responsible steward of your intellectual property. Retain vital rights for you and your readers while authorizing publishing activities that benefit everyone by making scholarship more widely available.”
5. We couldn’t agree more—which is why we encourage authors to check out our publication contract resources, including our new guide to Understanding and Negotiating Book Publication Contracts. The guide provides an overview of key copyright issues and presents strategies that authors can use in their contracts to increase the openness of their books, both now and in the future. The guide also features contract success stories from authors who successfully negotiated with their publishers for more open terms.

___________________________________________________________________________

OPEN ACCESS WEEK DISCOUNT

In honor of OA Week, we are offering free shipping on purchases of the book version of Understanding Open Access. Visit the Authors Alliance store and enter code OA2018 to receive free shipping.

The discount is valid from October 24-29. While you’re there, you can also pre-order your copy of Understanding and Negotiating Book Publication Contracts. (The contract guide is currently in production, and will ship in November.)

___________________________________________________________________________

If you have questions or comments about open access, or wish to share your own experiences with open access publishing, get in touch and let us know!