Open Access Week 2023

by Emily Bongiovanni, Open Knowledge Librarian

October 23 - 29 is International Open Access Week. The term Open Access (OA) describes the practice of making scholarly research outputs freely accessible online and easily discoverable in an Internet search. Providing Open Access to research and scholarship has become a worldwide movement serving the mission of higher education, and it is strategic for Carnegie Mellon University. Open Access disseminates works authored by the Carnegie Mellon community as broadly as possible, encouraging use, increasing citations, and amplifying impact, and enables the Carnegie Mellon community to access works authored around the world.

This year marks 20 years since then-Provost Mark Kamlet signed the Budapest Open Access Initiative in 2003. Since then, CMU has continued to expand its OA support for CMU and outside communities, and as result CMU’s openly published materials has increased. In 2022, 69.7% of CMU-authored journal articles were published OA, more than doubling the amount since 2003. It takes many conversations, partnerships, funding agency policies, and institutional support to make such substantial changes to scholarly communication behaviors in just two decades.

The University Libraries supports Open Access at CMU through three main avenues: transformative publisher agreements, APC funds, and hosting an institutional repository.

Transformative Journal Agreements
Through the Libraries’ efforts to champion new forms of scholarly communication, we have focused on building relationships with publishers that prioritize open access and sustainability. The Libraries has Open Access agreements with various publishers, including Elsevier, Wiley, Cambridge University Press, Springer, Institute of Physics, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), American Chemical Society (ACS), Cold Spring Harbor Press, Public Library of Science (PLoS), and Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). A list of all eligible journals via publisher agreements or memberships for APC discounts is available (7,536 journals total).

APC Funds
The Libraries also maintains an Article Processing Charge (APC) fund to support our CMU authors who wish to publish open access outside of our publisher agreements. An APC is a publishing fee charged to authors who are publishing in open access journals. The fee shifts the journal production cost to the author and replaces the subscription charge that libraries and researchers would pay to access an article behind a paywall. In FY2022-2033, the Libraries funded 56 OA articles through the APC program. Learn more about eligibility and submitting a request on the Article Processing Charges page.

Institutional Repository
KiltHub is a comprehensive institutional repository platform, provided by the University Libraries and hosted on Figshare, where Carnegie Mellon University researchers and their collaborators can share the scholarly outputs and research data produced in the course of their research. KiltHub curates, collects, preserves, and provides open access to this material as part of the Libraries' commitment to open scholarship and collaboration. Learn more on the KiltHub Guide.

KiltHub offers a Green Open Access solution for instances where CMU’s agreements and APC funds do not apply and a manuscript is able to be deposited in an institutional repository. A delay of access (embargo) may be required in Green Open Access. In addition to KiltHub, CMU supports other platforms that can be used for sharing research outputs and byproducts openly. We encourage you to connect with the Libraries' Open Science team to learn more about the options available for different research needs.

“Mind the gap”
The Libraries is continuously working to expand our Open Access support offerings. We recognize that some journals will not be eligible for the Libraries’ current agreements and supports. We welcome you to join us in conversations as we work to progress our offerings and support equitable solutions that will benefit all institutions.

Upcoming Open Access Related Events:

Introduction to Academic Publishing Processes and Models
October 31, 12:00-1:00 PM
Hosted in the Den in Sorrells Library

This workshop will introduce academic publishing models, including Open Access models, and the publishing process of a scholarly work, including the peer-review process. This an introductory session aimed at graduate students and early career researchers.

Open Access Publishing session at the Open Science Symposium
November 3, 2:30-3:45 PM
Hosted Virtually

Speakers include Sanjiv Singh (Editor-in-Chief, Field Robotics), Stuart King (eLife), and Jason Portenoy (OpenAlex)

Morning Brew: Exploring Open Science at CMU Libraries
November 8, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Hosted in the Sustainability Suite in Hunt Library

Interested in open science? Stop by this informal mixer event to chat about open science over coffee and pastries. Our open science specialists will be on hand to answer any questions you might have and demo tools and resources that help support open data and publishing.