An Introduction to Open Access (OA)

Nimitz Library has open access agreements with:

• American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Cambridge University Press

...and has saved USNA and researchers close to $60,000 in publishing fees since 2023.

Here's how to take advantage and avoid paying article processing charges:

• Submit your article(s) as normal.
• You must be listed as the point of contact with USNA credentials
• You must select a Creative Commons license
• That’s it! The rest is behind the scenes.

SPARC Open Access Fact Sheet - This 2-page fact sheet from the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) provides basic information about open access.  SPARC is a global member organization working to promote open information.

Peter Suber's Open Access Overview - This brief but thorough description of open access provides an accessible orientation for those new to open access.

Budapest Open Access Initiative - The Budapest Open Access Initiative defined Open Access for the first time in 2002.  Since then the organization continues to survey the scholarly community and release updated recommendations.

Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of information that can be accessed, used and shared without restriction.  Open information includes

• Open Access Journals
• Open Data
• Open Educational Resources

"Creative Commons licenses give everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law. From the reuser’s perspective, the presence of a Creative Commons license on a copyrighted work answers the question, What can I do with this work?" - creativecommons.org

There are six different license types that articulate various levels of sharing and reuse permissions.

Find additional resources on author rights at SPARC's information page.