Content
Open Access
1. What's Open Access
“Our mission of disseminating knowledge is only half complete if the information is not made widely and readily available to society.”
—Berlin Declaration
Traditionally, subscription-based journal publishers or owners own the copyright of published articles in most cases, in which readers have access to scholarly information by paying a subscription (usually via libraries). And those who want to use any content in any format must get permission first from the publisher or owner and then pay additional fees for the use.
Open access is a publishing model for scholarly communication that makes research information available to readers at no cost, in which research outputs are available online to all readers without any barriers. Authors retain the copyright of their own works under this publishing model. Besides, the published materials in the journal that can be re-used without permission from the publish-house or the authors as long as a correct citation to the original publication is given. Generally, the publisher will charge authors for processing the article to cover the publication cost.
A detailed explanation of an Open Access of scientific publication can be found in the following external Resources:
Wikipedia article on “Open Access”
Open Access Network
All articles published by MRE Press are made immediately available worldwide under an open access Creative Common (CC BY) license. This means:
- Everyone has free and unlimited access to the full-text of all articles published in MRE Press journals.
- Free for readers, with a comparatively low Article Processing Charges (APC) paid by authors or their funding bodies or institutions.
2. Benefits of Open Access Publishing
Publications are freely available online
This maximizes visibility, and thus the uptake and use of the work published.
Authors may retain copyright
The use of a Creative Commons License enables authors/editors to retain copyright to their work. Publications can be reused and redistributed as long as the original author is correctly attributed.
High quality and rigorous peer review
Open access publications run through the same peer review, production and publishing processes similar to journals and books published under the traditional subscription-based model do.
Rapid publication
A streamlined and easy to use online submission and production process enables quick review, approval and publication.
No space constraints
Publishing online means unlimited space for supplementary material including figures, extensive data and video footage.
Compliance with open access mandates
Open access publications can comply with open access mandates from funding sources or academic institutions in the fastest and easiest way. Final articles can be deposited into bibliographic databases and institutional repositories without any embargo periods.
Citation tracking and inclusion in bibliographic databases
Open access journals are tracked for impact factors and are deposited into bibliographic databases and institutional repositories without any embargo period just as traditional journals.
The full text of all MRE Press articles is immediately available to all without registration or subscription. This means that search engines such as Google Scholar can index them fully, greatly increasing their visibility.
Lower publishing costs
Open access publishers charge the author’s institutes or research funding agencies only for editorial handling and editing of a paper. All the costs for each accepted article including the cost of handing and producing is covered through the one-time payment of an article processing charge (APC), which are only a fraction of the income per paper earned by traditional, subscription-based publishers. Besides, MRE Press’ APC is irrespective of article length and the authors can get their paper published with complete results and full experimental or computational details.