ECU Libraries’ Open Access Support for Faculty

Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles

and the rights to use the articles fully in the digital environment.

– SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition)

 

Typically, a publisher owns the rights to the articles in its journals, not the authors of the work. If a student or researcher – or anyone – wants to read them or use the articles in their own work, there is an often-costly fee.

Open Access (OA) allows access to research without a subscription, increasing access to other researchers, teachers, students and the public. By removing cost and usage barriers, OA helps promote equity, expand knowledge and further research. It can bring the latest research into classrooms. And it helps shine a light on the important research work being done by our faculty by making it more widely available.

ECU Libraries is committed to making access to research more sustainable, affordable, transparent and open.

Jan Lewis, director of Academic Library Services (ALS), said, “Universal access to knowledge in an environment of open scholarship and shared creativity supports our mission.”

ECU Libraries provides funding for authors through the Open Access Publishing Support Fund and partners with publishers to support open access for authors and researchers. Currently, we have established agreements with Cambridge University Press, The Company of Biologists, Sage Publishing, Annual Reviews, SCOAP3 and Public Library of Science (PLOS). ECU Libraries is one of only two universities in the state to have an institutional membership with PLOS.

Want to know more?

https://sustainablescholarship.ecu.edu/open-access-publishing-support/

Questions? Please contact scholarlycomm@ecu.edu.