Open Access

1. What is Open Access

According to the Budapest Open Access Initiative, by the term 'open access' to [peer-reviewed research output], we mean its free availability on the internet, enabling every user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or provide a hyperlink to the full text of articles, to crawl through articles for indexing purposes, to forward it as data to third-party software, or to use it for any legitimate purpose without any financial, legal or technical impediment beyond what is required to access the Internet itself. The only restriction on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this field should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and their right to be properly recognised and cited in the literature as authors of the work.

2. Why Open Access

The advantages of supporting Open Access are varied:

• Greater visibility is achieved and at the same time the impact of research is broadened
• Facilitating access
• Opportunity to exploit text mining technology
• Better return on investment, from the point of view of funders, since research has a greater impact.
• Speeding up the publishing process
• Implements the mission of education to promote knowledge

3. Types of Open Access

There are two types of Open Access:

• Green Open Access , where the author submits a version of his/her scientific article to an institutional repository or website. This form of the article does not constitute the one that will be published in a subscription magazine. Green Open Access is essentially a self-archiving of the publication and is not subject to any kind of charge. For more information on publishers' terms for self-archiving, please see at SHERPA/ROMEO.
• The Golden Open Access , where the author seeks free access of his publication to all, with rights of reuse, after it has taken its final form and is published in a subscription magazine. Royalties are granted after payment. In fact, the article is published in an Open Access journal or in a hybrid (subscription) magazine and then the publication costs (APC) are covered. Costs are usually paid by the research funding body or by the institution. Finally the article is subject to one of the Creative Commons licenses.

For more information on Open Access and the existing options for Greek researchers, see the brochure of the Association of Greek Academic Libraries. In the list below, the details of the agreements with publishers are presented, by clicking on their name:

Publisher Open Access Agreements