Researchers affiliated with the University of Otago will be able to publish their work so that readers around the world will have free online access to it.
By taking advantage of new agreements, Otago University scholars and researchers will have the opportunity to publish in more than 4500 ‘‘open access’’ journals.
A publication is open access if there are no financial or legal barriers to reading it.
This means readers anywhere, whether affiliated with a university or not, have access to research publications, from peer-reviewed articles to monographs, at no cost.
Open access publishing also allows scholarly research to be disseminated rapidly and widely.
University of Otago librarian Mike Wall said the arrangement had advantages for both readers and authors.
“Research is more likely to be read and cited, as more readers have access.
“Readers who would have been prevented by paywalls and subscription costs will now have access,” Mr Wall said.
The University of Otago library was a member of Council of Australian University Librarians Procurement Consortium (Caul), Mr Wall said.
Caul negotiated with six publishers, including Brill, Cambridge University Press, Springer Nature, and Wiley, for the open access deal. The agreements came into effect last month.
Prof John Macmillan, of the University of Otago Bioethics Centre and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics said the agreement was a boon to learning.
“Open access means anyone can read the research. This is good for the wide distribution of knowledge and innovation in the public sphere.”
