Open Access
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Hopkins Libraries Commitment to Open Scholarship
The Johns Hopkins Libraries affirm a vision of open scholarship that advances research, teaching, and intellectual growth, and furthers the University's mission of knowledge for the world. Open scholarship benefits everyone because it facilitates faster dissemination and access to knowledge by broader audiences. Open scholarship removes barriers to interdisciplinary and international scholarship, facilitates discovery and collaboration across fields, and ensures that scholarship remains accessible through time. For these reasons the JHU Libraries are committed to supporting the immense possibilities of open scholarship.
Your Librarian
Agencies and Reports
Groups across the globe are examining different aspects of the publishing environment. Here are a few groups and some of their reports.
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Pathways to Open AccessReport from the University of California Libraries. Reviews different OA methods and lays out their strengths and weaknesses.
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OA2020Initiative created by the Max Planck Digital Library to accelerate the transition to Open Access.
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SPARC 2018 Program PlanSPARC is a coalition of libraries, working to make research more open. JHU Libraries are a member of SPARC.
OA Basics
For the purposes of this guide, Open Access refers to making peer-reviewed journal articles freely available for reading and re-use. Terms like Open Access, Open Scholarship, Open Science, Open Source, Open Data, and Open Educational Resources are sometimes used interchangeably.
If you have questions about scholarly communications, publishing, open access, or how the library can support your scholarly work, please email scholcomm@jh.edu.
If you have questions about copyright, intellectual property, or your rights as a content creator, please visit our Copyright Guide or email copyright@jhu.edu.
Finding Reliable Open Access Journals and Books
Since identifying a predatory journal is a process and involves a lot of subjective considerations, there isn't one list of bad actors. You should use one or more of the sites below to help you identify predatory journals. Most of these are 'white lists', or lists of journals that meet certain requirements to prove they are reputable. Some are lists of characteristics for you to look for when considering a journal.
Funder OA Requirements
Many funding insititutions now require recipients to make journal articles freely available to the public. Making journal articles freely available will allow:
- access to researchers in developing countries,
- access to researchers at small institutions,
- taxpayers to see what their monies supported,
- and support public groups like patient advocacay groups and environmental groups.
SPARC, ROARMAP and SHERPA/FACT provide lists of funding agencies with such mandates. A Funder Compliance guide is available from the JHU Libraries.