Open knowledge at the UOC

What is open access? Which are its benefits? The open access publishing strategies, its legal framework, and much more.

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What is open knowledge?

Knowledge is one of the key elements for achieving the 2030 Agenda. Universities must become spaces that facilitate discussion and the collaborative, transparent creation of knowledge and that can incorporate approaches and ideas, whatever their origin. Universities must also ensure that the knowledge they generate is open, that is, available and accessible, under conditions that enable its reuse, redistribution and reproduction

At the UOC, we are committed to transformation through becoming a knowledge hub. This involves opening up the University in all ways and making it into a more porous institution, with two-way connections to various stakeholders and groups in society. 

The open access (OA) movement is the outcome of the electronic publishing facilities and Internet. This movement advocates permanent, free access, without restrictions imposed by certain exploitation rights, to scientific, academic and educational contents with the goal of fostering their accessibility and impact for the benefit of science and society.

International declarations about open access:

  • Increased visibility of scientific literature.
  • Increased impact of publications: increase in citations of authors and publications.
  • Perpetual access to documents.
  • Easy retrieval of contents published in open access.
  • Guaranteed preservation of research results.
  • Increased visibility of institutions.

(Font: REBIUN)

Self-archiving: green route

Self-archiving in institutional repositories, such as the O2, or in thematic repositories, enables the following:

  • Publication of a copy of the articles (published and reviewed).
  • Publication of the version sent (preprint), accepted (postprint) or published (publisher's PDF).
  • Access to publications with the possibility of free access, embargoed access or restricted access.

In the case of scientific publications, you must consult the self-archiving policies of the publishers where you have published your works:

 

Open-access journals: gold route

The gold route consists of publishing in journals that do not charge any subscription fee for access to the articles, but which have business models that enable them to cover their publishing expenses (for example: an author pays to publish in open access).

 

Hybrid model

With the hybrid model, the journals publish the articles with immediate open access after the author or institution owning the articles has paid a fee to finance access.

On 12th April 2021 the Executive Board approved the Open Access Institutional Policy at the UOC. The aim of this policy is to establish the institutional framework to allow the UOC to openly share and transfer the knowledge it generates as a result of its research, teaching, innovation and institutional management in the university's various disciplines.

Recommendations and good practices

 

The contents of the UOC's micro-MOOC on open knowledge

A free online course on open knowledge taught via the  @moocmicro Twitter account.

What is an institutional repository?

According to the definition given by Crown (2002) for the Scholarly Publishing Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) in The Case for Institutional Repositories: A SPARC Position Paper, an institutional repository is “a digital archive of the intellectual product created by the faculty, research staff, and students of an institution and accessible to end users both within and outside of the institution, with few if any barriers to access. In other words, the content of an institutional repository is:

  • Institutionally defined;
  • Scholarly;
  • Cumulative and perpetual; and
  • Open and interoperable."
Cooperative repositories in which the Virtual Library takes part
  • TDX, doctoral theses on the Web
  • RACO, open-access Catalan journals 
  • RECERCAT, Catalonia's research depository
  • MDX, teaching materials on the Web
  • Research data repository by the CSUC (Catalan University Service Consortium)

The Library takes part in Strategic line 3 (enhance the development and use of the digital library 2.0, Internet and the social media) of the Network of University Libraries (REBIUN) and coordinates this network's Repository GT.

Repository directories 
  • OpenDOAR - The Directory of Open Access Repositories
  • The Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR)