Promoting the University’s Scholarship Through Open Access

We’re celebrating Open Access Week at the University Libraries starting October 24 - and we especially want to celebrate the many, many people in the University community who have taken part in Open Access (OA)! In the past year, University of Nevada, Reno faculty and students have published more than 1,700 research articles that have been made OA.

A number of studies have found a connection between making research OA and increased journal citations. The fewer barriers there are to research, the more likely others will be able to not only find it but also cite it. OA helps expand the impact of our faculty.

We’re featuring a few of those researchers and what OA has meant for their research:

• Sarah Haigh, Psychology: “Publishing in Open Access journals has meant that my work has been published quickly and without being behind a paywall. The review time and publishing time are both on the order of weeks! This has been a huge help with getting data published, particularly when I’m under a time pressure such as a grant finishing or wanting to cite the data for a new publication or grant.”
• Pradeep Menezes, Mechanical Engineering: “Many researchers at many universities, especially from third-world countries, can't access subscription journal articles since their university/organization can't afford a subscription. Scholarly research work can be disseminated quickly and to a wider community. Greater accessibility can result in increased readership, broader recognition of the university, more research impact, and more citations of your research article. Open access can create new avenues for business entities as they can have easier, full access to our research work. This can further enhance their business activities based on our scientific ideas. Research work can be used as an open educational resource for teaching activities. This will keep the readers updated about the latest research activities.”
• Karla Wagner, Public Health: “In our research group we strive to do work that is applied and pragmatic. Results from our research might be used to inform policy implementation, evaluate or improve interventions, or to develop new programs. Publishing in open access journals is one tool we can use to ensure that our research findings are disseminated to a broad group of stakeholders and made available to public health partners who can put the research into practice.”
• John Cushman, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology: “Given the international nature of agricultural research particularly in semi-arid and arid regions, we selected OA publishers because it allows the greatest dissemination of our work to researchers throughout the world who might benefit from our research results.

More and more grant funders are also recognizing the importance of making research OA, especially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to quickly get research results out to the world. The White House recently announced in the Nelson Memo an expansion of its article and data sharing policies. Beginning in a few years, all federal departments must have plans in place to require grantees share their research articles and data immediately upon publication. This is a change from a 2013 White House memo, where only certain federal departments required such sharing and with a 12 month embargo. Under the updated policy, by 2025, anyone receiving federal funding will need to share their published research, including their data.

The University Libraries can help you make both your research and data OA and make sure you’re meeting any grant funder requirements. Our Libraries Research Data Services team is able to assist with these new requirements. We are able to review university researchers’ Data Management Plans, suggest data repositories appropriate to each discipline, and also point to additional internal and external resources that can aid you to meet these requirements. We can also advise you on how to format and curate your final data so they are ready for storage in digital depositories. You can access these services by visiting our page where you can schedule an appointment with our team.

Have questions about choosing an OA journal, preprint repositories, copyright issues, or how to measure your research impact? Email your subject librarian or schedule an appointment with Scholarly Communications & Social Sciences Librarian Teresa Schultz, who can help walk you through publishing OA.

About the authors

Teresa Schultz is an assistant professor & Scholarly Communications & Social Sciences Librarian and Carlos Ramirez-Reyes is an assistant professor & Data Services Coordinator.