Open Access to scholarly publications

Open Access means that scholarly publications are made freely, immediately and permanently available to everyone via internet.

When publishing Open Access (OA), the author retains copyright to his or her publication while granting users the rights to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search in or link to the full-text without demanding financial compensation. To define the rights for use and reuse, an open licence is applied to the publication; commonly, Creative Commons licences are used.

Why publish Open Access?

There are many good reasons to publish Open Access (OA).

  • Publicly funded research should be publicly available. The public shouldn't have to pay for access to this research.
  • OA provides equal access to research outputs for everyone (principle of solidarity). The use of open licences makes it easier to share and use the work.
  • New knowledge is discovered faster when it is openly accessible. Removal of copyright barriers makes it easier for society to build on this knowledge. OA publications are downloaded, read and cited more often than other publications.
  • Publications that are archived and made available in open institutional or national repositories, will also be accessible in the future.
  • More and more funders require Open Access to results from research fully or partially funded by them. Read more on separate webpage on “funder’s requirements for Open Access”.

How to achieve Open Access?

  • Publish in a journal ​where all the papers are made openly accessible at the time of publication, without any embargo period being required (immediate OA). The author usually retains copyright and the publications are made available under an open licence.

    Diamond OA: Many peer-reviewed pure OA journals do not demand any publication fee (free publishing).

    Gold OA: Some pure OA journals require authors to pay a publication fee (article processing charge, APC) when an article gets accepted for publication. Corresponding authors can apply to Nord University’s OA Fund when publishing in peer-reviewed pure OA journals; the APC will be covered by the Fund if the application meets the criteria.

    Please note: Confusingly, many journals/publishers include both pure Open Access journals and hybrid journals under the term “gold Open Access” (more information on hybrid OA below). To determine whether a journal is pure Open Opess, check www.doaj.org where most pure OA journals are indexed, or ask Nord University’s Open Access advisors.

  • Publish a "closed" article (non-OA, not under an open licence) in a subscription-based journal and make the peer-reviewed, accepted version openly accessible in the institutional repository (self-archiving, green OA). The accepted version is the last manuscript version you send to the journal after peer-review, but not the final published version (Version of Record). Most subscription based-journals do not permit self-archiving of publisher formatted versions – neither of the final published version nor of proof versions.

    Self-archiving also includes Open Access publications. Nord University’s OA policy (PDF) requires all researchers and PhD students to self-archive their scholarly journal articles and PhD theses; furthermore, the policy encourages staff members to self-archive scholarly books / book chapters. See instructions on how to self-archive your research articles.

  • Pay an extra publication fee (Article Processing Charge, APC) to make your individual article Open Access in an otherwise subscription-based journal. The other articles in the journal remain behind a paywall. Hybrid OA is on average the most expensive route to Open Access and is neither supported by Nord University's OA Fund nor research funders like the Research Council of Norway, the EU and Northern Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Nord).

  • Nord University participates in nationally negotiated Open Access publishing agreements with several academic publishers. The agreements either fully cover Article Processing Charges (APCs) or grant our researchers a discount on APCs. Our website on Open Access publishing agreements provides more information and an overview of available agreements.

OA books

The main focus of open publishing has so far been on scientific journal articles, and the OA status is only documented for scholarly journal articles. At the same time, also books can be published Open Access, and several funders (e.g. the EU and the Research Council of Norway, RCN) have extended their OA requirements to also include books.

The publication fee for one Open Access book can be very high. Researchers applying for project funding from the EU or RCN, must include publication costs for OA books and book chapters in the application. Several Norwegian universities (including Nord University) have publication funds that also cover (chapters in) pure OA books. Usually, there is an upper limit to the fee that can be covered by the fund; the funding is based on the cost of the publication and the proportion written by Nord authors (read more on Nord University’s OA Fund). Hybrid OA – payment of fees to make individual chapters OA in otherwise non-OA books – is not supported.

Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) has an overview over OA book publishers (note that DOAB is not complete). You may also want to check the channel register of the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir) to see if the publisher is ranked on level 1 or 2. The webpage OA Books Toolkit provides useful tips on Open Access publishing of books.

Some publishers have policies on self-archiving (green OA) of chapters in non-OA books; as for non-OA/subscription journal articles, usually the accepted manuscript version can be made accessible in open repositories.

Open Access policy fo​r Nord University

  • Researchers must publish in pure OA journals as long as this is academically justifiable​​​
  • All articles crediting Nord University must be deposited in Nord Open Research Archive, the university​'s institutional repository. See instruc​tions on self-archiving

See the complete Open Access policy (PDF)

Would you like to know if Nord University financially supports Open Access publishing in your chosen journal?

The following steps apply if you are the corresponding author of the article (the one submitting the manuscript) and credit Nord University in the publication.

  1. Find the journal in the ch​a​nnel register of the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir)​. Is the journal ranked level 1 or 2?
  2. Under the heading “Open Access”, see if the journal is indexed in DOAJ; if so, you may apply for funding from Nord University's OA Fund.
  3. Is the journal included in a national OA publishing agreement (merket med «A»), and is Nord University listed as one of the participating institutions? If yes, you may publish Open Access in the journal at no additional cost. For details, see separate webpage on Nord's OA publishing agreements.
  4. If the journal is neither indexed by DOAJ nor included in a publishing agreement, you may still publish in the journal (non-OA / subscription access). You can still provide Open Access to the article, at no additional cost, by uploading the Accepted Version of the article in Cristin (self-archiving).

How to search for relevant journals in the channel register of HK-dir, is described on a specific website.

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