OAC 2025 Professional study guide
OAC 2025 Professional · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The OAC 2025 Professional is a professional certification for people who run, support, or advise on open access and open science programmes - repository managers, scholarly communications librarians, research office and funder compliance staff, publishers, and consultants. It tests applied judgement across the whole open access workflow rather than memorised definitions, so expect questions that put you in a real decision: which licence to recommend when a funder and a journal disagree, how to handle a dataset deposit with incomplete metadata, or how to advise a researcher whose metrics-based promotion case depends on non-traditional outputs. The OAC 2025 Professional study guide has 9 sections and about 2,661 words.
01Foundations and Governance of Open Access and Open Science
The Foundations and Governance domain tests whether you can distinguish open access (OA) from the wider open science movement and explain who governs each. Expect definitions, landmark statements, policy instruments and the division of responsibility among funders, institutions, publishers, libraries and infrastructures.
304 words, about 2 min02Open Access Publishing Models and Business Models
The Publishing Models and Business Models domain tests your ability to classify journals and agreements by who pays, who can reuse, and how the model is sustained. You need to recognize gold, hybrid, green, bronze and diamond OA, APC and BPC economics, transformative agreements, Subscribe to Open and collective funding.
331 words, about 2 min03Rights, Licensing, and Copyright (CC Licenses, Author Rights)
This domain tests copyright ownership, licensing mechanics and author rights in OA workflows. You must know how CC licenses work, what rights retention changes, and why a copyright transfer can block OA deposit.
312 words, about 2 min04Institutional Repositories and Research Data Management
Institutional Repositories and Research Data Management tests repository workflows, metadata, version control, access restrictions and the research data lifecycle. Expect FAIR, data management plans (DMPs), sensitive data and certification.
301 words, about 2 min05Open Research Infrastructure, Standards, and Persistent Identifiers
Open Research Infrastructure, Standards and Persistent Identifiers tests how scholarly objects and actors are identified, linked and made interoperable. You need to know the main PID systems, metadata standards and the principles of open, community-governed infrastructure.
278 words, about 1 min06Research Assessment, Metrics, and Responsible Evaluation
Research Assessment, Metrics and Responsible Evaluation tests whether you can critique indicators and design fairer assessment. Expect DORA, the Leiden Manifesto, CoARA, the Hong Kong Principles, journal impact factor misuse and narrative CVs.
284 words, about 1 min07Compliance, Mandates, and Funder/Institutional Policies
Compliance, Mandates and Funder/Institutional Policies tests how to read a policy, map it to a workflow and prove compliance. You need to distinguish funder, institutional and publisher requirements, and know the common conditions: immediate OA, CC BY, repository deposit and rights retention.
309 words, about 2 min08Open Access Advocacy, Training, and Community Engagement
Open Access Advocacy, Training and Community Engagement tests how to change behaviour, not just raise awareness. You need audience analysis, evidence-based messages, training design, champion networks and evaluation.
265 words, about 1 min09Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Open Access
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Open Access tests whether you can identify who is excluded by OA models and design fairer ones. Expect APC barriers, read-and-publish exclusions, language and accessibility, bibliodiversity and Global South perspectives.
277 words, about 1 min