Open Access - free access to research results

Open Access means free access to research results on the Internet, which implies that everyone may read, cite, download and print scientific articles free of charge according to the Berlin declaration ("Open Access (OA) means immediate, permanent, free online access to the full text of all refereed research journal articles").

To publish Open Access

Authors can choose between:

Open Access- archiving
Publication in a subscribable journal joined by the parallel publishing of the article freely accessible in full-text in an institutional repository, such as BADA (Borås Academic Digital Archive). You should check the copyright to the publication in the contract drawn up with the publisher when choosing a parallel publishing. In the search engine SherpaRomeo  you can find publishers rules and regulations.

Open Access- publishing
Publication in an Open Access journal, meaning that the article will be freely accessible at the very moment of the publishing. You can search and find over 3900 quality controlled journals in the search engine DOAJ.
 

Open Access initiatives

The first major initiative for Open Access was the Budapest Open Access Initiative from February 2002, that among other things gave a definition of what Open Access means. This was followed by the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities that was signed by representatives for leading research institutions in October 2003 and in Sweden by institutions such as The Swedish Research Council, The Association of Swedish Higher Education and The National Library.

In Europe, SPARC Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (a joint committee for European research libraries, library organizations and research institutions), works actively for free access to scientific material.

In Sweden OpenAccess.se (the National Library's Department for National Co-operation) focuses on promoting a maximum of visibility and accessibility for material produced by researchers, teachers and students at Swedish universities and colleges. .

OASIS is a web site that aims to provide an authoritative "sourcebook" on Open Access, covering the concept, principles, advantages, approaches and means to achieving it. The site highlights developments and initiatives from around the world, with links to diverse additional resources and case studies.

Open Access Information is a web site (most information in Swedish) containing presentation and information material on different aspects of Open Access publishing, such as copyright, parallel publishing and Open Access journals.