Open access means making research outputs available on the Internet, permitting anyone to access them at no cost.
Benefits of open access:
You have two basic ways to make your papers open access.
Authors make their final manuscript or preprint accessible on their own website or their institution’s repository (“self-archiving”).
Most of the major international publishers have a policy on self-archiving by authors and provide terms and conditions that authors should comply with, such as embargo period and appropriate credit.
Authors make their published articles accessible to everyone for free.
One way to do this is to contribute your article to a fully open access journal. Now, a number of fully open access journals are published. More than 7000 titles are contained in Scopus as of January 19, 2024.
In many cases, publication cost of fully open access journals is covered by article processing charges (APCs), which are paid to the publisher by the contributor.
In addition to fully open access journals, there are subscription-based “hybrid journals”, which offer an open access option at an additional cost.
In recent years, it is said that there are increasing number of what is called “predatory” journals, which accept and publish articles regardless of the quality of the paper in order to collect APCs.
If your paper is published in a journal which may be recognized as malicious, your credibility and career as a researcher may be compromised.
Please be especially careful about choosing a journal to submit your article to, by using the tools as described below.
Osaka University developed the Osaka University Open Access Policy on April 17, 2020 with the aim of disseminating the University’s research outputs and intellectual resources widely, both locally and globally.
This policy stipulates that Osaka University will provide open pubic access to the research outputs of faculty members published in academic journals via Osaka University Knowledge Archive (OUKA) or by other means chosen by the author.
Please refer to the links below for information about the Osaka University Open Access Policy and how it is implemented.
Osaka University Knowledge Archive (OUKA) is an institutional repository of Osaka University. OUKA electronically archives research papers and other academic results produced by educational and research activities of Osaka University, which are then made available to the public.
Faculty and staff members and students can make their research outputs available to the public via OUKA at no cost.
Please refer to the following links for how to use OUKA, terms and conditions and more information.
Osaka University now provides proofreading and editing services for researchers who plan to contribute English papers to academic journals. The university also provides financial aid for payment of APCs.
Please refer to the following pages for further information.
Osaka University faculty and staff members and students may be entitled to an waiver or discount depending on the subscription or other agreement concluded between the University and publishers. Please refer to the following page for further information.
Originating from the Serials Crisis (increasing cost of academic journals) which began in 1980s, open access publishing has, with the involvement of researchers, libraries, publishers, universities, research institutions, funding bodies, state governments and other stakeholders, developed into a major movement which decides the global future trend of academic information distribution.
| Researcher communities |
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| Publishers |
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| Universities and research institutions |
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| Research funding bodies |
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| Libraries |
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* The numbers in the table were confirmed as of January 19, 2024.
Open access is promoted also in Japan as a country-leading initiative.
| The Cabinet Office |
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| Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST） |
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| Japan Society for the Promotion on Science (JSPS） |
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* The numbers in the table were confirmed as of January 19, 2024.
University libraries, including us, are working as important supporters of open access in cooperation with other organizations within or beyond the university boundary in order to promote open access publishing of research outputs.
