Open Access in Academia

Open Access matters because it eliminates financial barriers to scholarship.

Open Access means that research, data, and other educational tools are available without intensive copyright restrictions and can be read, downloaded, and shared by anyone.

Open Access expands intellectual curiosity, collaboration, and equity in academia.

Academic publishing is a profit-driven world. Most often, publishers own the rights to the articles present in their journals – not the authors. If you want access, you have to pay by individual article or for cost-prohibitive subscriptions. This structure makes access to scholarship inequitable, slows down intellectual advancement, and puts publicly-funded research behind paywalls.

For more information, check out "Benefits of Open" from PLOS.

• Looking for open access journals published by the CSU? The Chancellor's Office hosts a journal platform where you can view CSU open access journals, and learn about how to start your own! Visit Cal State Journals for more information.
   
• ScholarWorks is a shared, open platform containing scholarship and creative output from the CSU system. The repository is where you can host your work in a sustainable, long-term, discoverable fashion.


• In 2022, the CSU entered a partnership with ACS, the American Chemical Society, that allows readers and researchers to benefit from subscription content while receiving support for open access publication in ACS’ portfolio of more than 75 premier chemistry journals. The partnership lasts through 2025.
   
• In March of 2019 the CSU renewed contracts with Elsevier with stipulations that favor open access more so than in past years. See the full article, for contract details. Elsevier and the CSU are also piloting an open access publishing project allowing CSU authors to make some articles (published in Elsevier journals) open access. More information is available through the Elsevier website. The partnership lasts through the end of 2024.
   
• In 2019, the CSU Council of Library Deans supports the UC system in their efforts to support open access. See the full article.
   
• In 2016 the CSU Council of Library Deans passed a resolution in support of open access for CSU faculty publications. See the full article.

Open Access Guide via "How Open Is It?" From SPARC*