Open access

Open Access means that scientific results are made freely available on the internet. This primarily applies to scientific articles, theses, and reports, but also includes books and research data. Some research funders require free publication of research results they have financed.

Publishing in an Open Access (OA) journal or a hybrid journal

To publish an article in a journal that applies Open Access is sometimes referred to as "golden Open Access". Publishing in an OA journal often means that the cost of the item is moved from the reader who won't have to pay the subscription fee to the author who shall pay a publishing fee (APC). Mid Sweden University affiliated researchers have the possibility to publish Open Access with funding through national library agreements with various publishers.

Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ) lists quality-controlled Open Access journals.

Parallel publishing

To parallel publish an article is also known as "green Open Access". This means that in addition to publishing your article in a traditional subscription based journal you also upload a version of the article in a freely accessible repository on the Internet, for example DiVA.

Publishers have different policies regarding how their parallel publishing procedure of their articles may be done and it is important to find out what applies in the particular case. This can be done in Jisc's open policy finder. Search for the journal to check which policy applies and which version of the article can potentially be uploaded (publisher's version, author's version, or preprint).

Instructions for parallel publishing in DIVA

• Check what applies to your journal in Jisc's open policy finder or through contact with the Publisher.
• Log in on DIVA and fill all the metadata about the article in the form`s first step.
• In the next step you can upload your file. Take the right version (submitted, accepted or published), scroll to the right PDF-file on your computer and upload it. Please bear in mind that the Act on Accessibility to Digital Public Service places high demands on digital accessibility.
• The final publication is done by a DIVA-administrator at the library. In conjunction with the release, a cover sheet with your PDF reference and link to the original publication will be added.