Open access: what and why?
The objective of open access is to provide free online access to academic/scientific information. When you make your work available in open access you maximize the availability and accessibility of your own publications resulting in a positive impact on the number of citations. Some research funds now request or even mandate to make research available in open access for full exposure.
How can I publish in Open Access?
There are two options for publishing research results in Open Access: the 'green road' (i.e. you publish in a journal with a subscription model, but you place the author's version of your article in the Document Server) and the 'golden road' (i.e. you publish your work immediately in Open Access on the publisher's website, making the published version freely accessible to the public).
Open Access policy @ UHasselt
Hasselt University subscribes to an open access vision based on the 'green road'. To this end, its own institutional open access database, Document Server@UHasselt, is promoted. Each UHasselt author is expected to upload the author’s version of her/his peer-reviewed publications from journals and proceedings in the Document Server@UHasselt. Hasselt University Library will lend UHasselt authors its full support.
Do I have to make my work available in Open Access? And how do I choose a qualitative open access journal?
Funders often require publications to be made available in Open Access and, in addition, UHasselt expects its authors to upload their author's version to UHasselt's repository. There are many questions about the quality of open access publication channels, especially open access journals. These doubts are reinforced by the phenomenon of the so-called “predatory journals”. This page provides tips and tricks to recognize such “predatory journals”.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions and answers: What is the difference between the 'green road' and the 'golden road'? What is the UHasselt policy concerning 'gold open access'? Will you still be able to publish in a journal of your choice? etc.
Contact information and useful links
Contact information and useful links to a number of important and interesting websites, resources and tools that can provide additional information about all possible open access related topics.