The Budapest Open Access Initiative defines Open Access (OA) to research as free “availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of [research] articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution and the only role for copyright in this domain should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.”
Authors get to keep their copyright.
There is no embargo period.
The research data is shared with the article.
Adding a Creative Commons license (any license will do but CC-BY is preferred) allows for data and text mining.
Content for this section has been adapted from “Open Access to Scholarship” https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/6-1-open-access-to-scholarship/ by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are materials used for research, learning, and teaching that are either in the public domain, or licensed in a way that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities: retain, reuse, revise, remix, redistribute.
Let's look a little closer at the 5Rs as they provide an excellent example of how flexible OER materials compared to traditional educational materials that are 1. more expensive and only getting pricier, and 2. extremely rigid in regards to copyright and reuse.
Retain – gives you permission to own, make, and control copies of the content
Reuse – gives you permission to use and reuse the material in a wide range of ways including for in-class use, on a website, or in a video
Revise – gives you permission to modify, adapt, alter, and adjust the content itself (including translating the work into another language)
Remix – gives you permission to create something new by combining the original or revised content with other material
Redistribute – gives you permission to share widely! Share copies of the original content, your remixes, your revisions, etc. as much as you'd like
Content for this section has been adapted from “OER, Open Textbooks, and Open Courses” https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/6-2-oer-open-textbooks-open-courses/ by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0.
When does OA materials become OER? What's the difference?
Here is a diagram from the Public Domain that does a good job of illustrating the differences between these concepts:
(Retrieved from Clarification of Free Cultural Works, Open Educational Resources and Open Access, by Paul G. West, Version 4 May 2021, CC-BY 4.0)
It is interesting to note that one of the main differences between OA and OER is the "no derivatives" restriction. You see, when a work is licensed under the ND restriction, the material is considered Open Access and not OER as you cannot engage in the 5R activities listed above. Similarly, works under the non-commercial restriction can be OER, but will not be considered Free Cultural Works (FCW). Finally, if a resource is readily accessible and free but does not fit the definitions of FCW or OER, it is considered Open Access (West).
It is critical to understand the license implications of the works users are hoping to utilize - especially if they plan to remix or adapt said materials. Folks publishing materials also need to carefully consider their license choice as licenses are irrevocable (West).
Another way to illustrate these differences is with the following diagram:
(Adapted by Paul G. West from: Creative Commons, Open Licensing & Open Education, by Cable Green, CC-BY)
Works Cited
West, Paul G. “Clarification of Free Cultural Works, Open Educational Resources and Open Access.” Medium, https://medium.com/creative-commons-we-like-to-share/clarification-of-free-cultural-works-open-educational-resources-and-open-access-ff03e3b594af. Accessed 14 March 2024.
Content from this section has been adapted from “OER, Open Textbooks, and Open Courses” https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/6-2-oer-open-textbooks-open-courses/ by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0.
Why did this matter to you? Well, at the end of the day, it's really a conversation about accessibility. The diagrams below beautifully illustrate how the current funding structure can slow things down AND prevents users from accessing publicly-funded research!
As we can see in the diagrams here, the "closed access" publishing system (see top diagram), limits the impact of the scholarly and scientific community and progress is slowed significantly.
Whereas the "open access" publishing system (bottom diagram) allows for free use, reuse, downloads, remixing, readapting, and redistribution of research and data sets. The research is then made available for free to be consumed, reused, and re-shared. Therefore, progress is accelerated, and new discoveries and innovations can flourish!
(“Research Article Cycles,” by Billymeinke. CC BY 4.0.)
Content for this section has been adapted from “Open Access to Scholarship” https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/6-1-open-access-to-scholarship/ by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0.
As education is fundamentally about sharing knowledge and ideas, and because we can share effective education materials with the world for a near zero cost, Creative Commons believes that OER will replace much of the (very) expensive, proprietary content used in academia. Doing so will create more social benefits and economic opportunities without sacrificing the quality of the educational content.
As well as saving learners' money, research has shown that learners can also have better outcomes when their teachers adopt OER:
See Maintaining Momentum Toward Graduation: OER and the Course Throughput Rate by John Hilton III, Lane Fischer, David Wiley, and Linda Williams
See A Multi-Institutional Study of the Impact of Open Textbook Adoption on the Learning Outcomes of Post-Secondary Students by Lane Fischer, John Hilton III, T. Jared Robinson, and David Wiley
See Encouraging Impacts of an Open Education Resource Degree Initiative on College Students' Progress to Degree by Rebecca Griffiths, Jessica Mislevy, and Shuai Wang
As we have seen, adopting OA and OER materials means making learning and education more accessible for everyone. It helps to advance research and scientific discovery and it allows for the conversation to keep growing and evolving.
I hope you enjoyed this brief overview of Open Access and Open Educational Resources!
Content for this section has been adapted from “OER, Open Textbooks, and Open Courses” https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/6-2-oer-open-textbooks-open-courses/ by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0.
Curious about finding Open Access journals for you to utilize? Look no further! The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) indexes open access journals and if you aren't sure about how "open" a work is, there is this excellent tool called HowOpenIsIt? A Guide for Evaluating the Openness of Journals.
Additional OA and OER Resources:
Knowledge and Advocacy Resources
The following databases are Open Access databases pertaining to the arts. They are not necessarily Open Educational Resources and may not be under public domain or the Creative Commons licensing.
OER collections that cover topics pertaining to the arts.
Pressbooks is an open source project that allows you to create and publish an OER, whether you are creating one through an institution or as an individual.
There is also the Open Education Alberta service, which is a collaborative, no-fee publishing service for open textbooks and other open educational resources. This service is available to all Alberta post-secondary institutions.
