OAC 2025 Professional cheat sheet

Open Access (OA) = free, unrestricted online access to scholarly outputs, plus reuse rights; defined by the Budapest, Bethesda, and Berlin declarations (BBB).

Open Science = broader umbrella: OA plus open data, open source, open methodology, open peer review, citizen science, and open educational resources.

UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021) is the global normative instrument; it defines shared values (quality, integrity, equity, diversity) and seven action areas.

Governance levels: international (UNESCO, OECD), funder (cOAlition S, NIH), institutional (university senates, library committees), and infrastructure (DOAJ, Crossref).

cOAlition S (2018) launched Plan S: funded research must be immediately OA from 2021, with CC BY preferred and no embargo.

FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) govern data stewardship; they are about metadata and machine actionability, not just openness.

Open Science policy instruments include mandates, incentives, infrastructure investment, capacity building, and monitoring via indicators.

The 'open' spectrum ranges from gratis (free to read) to libre (free to reuse); only libre satisfies full OA definitions.

Gold OA: final version of record is immediately free at the publisher site; may be APC-based or diamond (no author fee).

Green OA: author deposits a version (preprint or accepted manuscript) in a repository; embargoes and rights retention determine legality.

Hybrid OA: subscription journal sells optional OA for individual articles via APC; double-dipping risk if subscriptions are not reduced.

Diamond/Platinum OA: no fees to readers or authors; funded by institutions, societies, grants, or consortia.

APC (Article Processing Charge) is a business model, not a definition of OA; APCs range from $0 to >$5,000 and vary by discipline.

Transformative agreements (read-and-publish) convert subscription spend into OA publishing; assessed by cOAlition S criteria and ESAC guidelines.

Predatory journals: charge APCs without peer review or indexing; check DOAJ, Think.Check.Submit., and COPE membership.

Sustainability models include consortia funding, library membership, institutional subsidies, and endowment; reliance on APCs raises equity concerns.

Copyright automatically vests in the author (or employer under work-for-hire); OA does not transfer copyright unless a license or agreement says so.

CC BY: reuse, adaptation, and commercial use allowed with attribution; the most permissive license recommended by Plan S and many funders.

CC BY-SA: adaptations must carry the same license (copyleft); CC BY-ND: no derivatives; CC BY-NC: no commercial use; combinations like CC BY-NC-SA exist.

CC0: public domain dedication, no attribution required; suitable for data but not always for articles.

Rights retention: authors can retain reuse rights via prior license (e.g., cOAlition S rights-retention strategy) or institutional policy, overriding publisher embargoes.

Publisher copyright transfer agreements may restrict green OA; authors should check the self-archiving policy via Sherpa Romeo.

Attribution (BY) requires credit, a link to the license, and an indication of changes; TASL = Title, Author, Source, License.

Third-party content (figures, images) may need separate permissions even if the article is CC BY.

Institutional repository (IR) captures, stores, indexes, and disseminates institutional scholarly output; software examples: DSpace, EPrints, Figshare, Samvera/Hyrax.

Repository certification: CoreTrustSeal for data repositories; ISO 16363 for trustworthy digital repositories.

Research Data Management (RDM) lifecycle: plan, collect, process, analyse, publish, preserve, reuse; DMPs document this.

DMP (Data Management Plan) is often required at proposal stage; tools include DMPonline and DMPtool; content covers data types, standards, access, and preservation.

Metadata standards: Dublin Core for repositories, DataCite for datasets, schema.org for discovery; persistent identifiers (DOIs) for deposits.

FAIR data requires rich metadata, persistent identifiers, controlled vocabularies, and clear licenses (CC0 or CC BY recommended).

Embargo and access control: repositories can set temporary embargoes; funders may require immediate or maximum 12-month embargoes.

Preservation: bit-level preservation, format migration, and trusted repository policies; OAIS reference model (ISO 14721) informs design.

Persistent Identifiers (PIDs): DOI (publications and data), ORCID (people), ROR (organizations), ISNI (names), ARK, and Handle.

DOI system is governed by the International DOI Foundation; registration agencies include Crossref (publications) and DataCite (data).

ORCID iD is a 16-digit identifier with checksum; it disambiguates authors and connects to employment, funding, and works.

ROR ID is an open, community-led registry of research organization identifiers; free and API-accessible.

Open infrastructure principles: community governance, sustainability, interoperability, and no vendor lock-in (e.g., IOI, SCOSS).

Metadata standards: Crossref schema for articles, DataCite schema for datasets, JATS for full text, OpenAIRE guidelines for repositories.

OpenAIRE Graph aggregates metadata across repositories and funders; used for monitoring and discovery.

PID graph links entities (people, organizations, outputs, funding) via PIDs; enables provenance and impact tracking.

DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, 2012): do not use journal impact factor as a surrogate for article or researcher quality.

Leiden Manifesto (2015): ten principles for metric use, including transparency, discipline-appropriate indicators, and avoiding perverse incentives.

H-index combines productivity and citation impact; it is field- and career-stage-dependent and not comparable across disciplines.

Journal Impact Factor (JIF) = citations in a year to items published in the prior two years divided by citable items in those years; not article-level.

Altmetrics measure online attention (news, blogs, social media, policy); complementary to citations, not a replacement.

Responsible evaluation includes narrative CVs, qualitative peer review, and broader outputs (data, software, teaching, policy).

COARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment) commits signatories to reform assessment criteria and processes.

Hong Kong Principles (2020) focus on rewarding responsible research practices, including data sharing and reproducibility.

Plan S (cOAlition S) requires immediate OA, CC BY license, and no embargo for funded articles; compliant routes include gold, diamond, and green with rights retention.

US OSTP Nelson Memo (2022): all federally funded research articles and data must be made freely available without embargo by end of 2025.

NIH Public Access Policy requires deposit in PubMed Central within 12 months (soon 0) of publication; compliance checked via NIHMS.

Horizon Europe requires OA via repository deposit within 3 months of publication and immediate open access; APC eligibility rules apply.

Institutional mandates may require deposit in the IR, immediate or embargoed OA, and rights retention; check local policy.

Compliance monitoring uses repository metadata, DOI resolution, funder reporting (e.g., Crossref funder registry), and audits.

Waivers and exceptions exist for APC-based models (low-income countries, cOAlition S waiver policy); not automatic.

Sanctions for non-compliance can include withheld grant payments or ineligibility for future funding.

Advocacy audiences: researchers, librarians, administrators, funders, policymakers, students, and the public; messages must be tailored.

Evidence base for advocacy: citation advantage (mixed), usage and visibility, compliance requirements, and public benefit.

Training formats: workshops, LibGuides, MOOCs, train-the-trainer, and micro-credentials; evaluate via pre/post surveys and uptake metrics.

Stakeholder mapping: identify champions, gatekeepers, and resistors; engage early and co-design services.

Open Access Week (October) is a global advocacy event; themes vary yearly; used for local campaigns.

Community engagement includes citizen science, Wikipedia edit-a-thons, and repository outreach to underrepresented groups.

Communication channels: newsletters, social media, departmental meetings, and institutional repositories as showcase.

Evaluation of advocacy: track deposit rates, OA publication shares, APC spend, and help-desk queries.

APC-based gold OA can exclude authors from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and underfunded disciplines; waiver policies are essential.

Diamond OA and institutional publishing reduce financial barriers and support bibliodiversity.

Bibliodiversity = diversity of publishers, languages, formats, and epistemologies; dominated by English-language, Global North publishers otherwise.

Equity in metrics: citation and altmetric data underrepresent Global South, non-English, and interdisciplinary research.

Inclusive infrastructure: multilingual metadata, local language repositories, and accessible formats (WCAG).

Gender and career-stage disparities in OA publishing and citation; monitor and mitigate.

Community-led and scholar-led publishing models prioritize equity over profit.

Policy design should include equity impact assessments and targeted funding for underrepresented researchers.