The document discusses open access publishing, which makes scholarly works freely available online without subscription fees. It notes that open access can increase visibility and impact of research. There are two main types of open access - gold, which is immediately available online, and green, which is available through repositories after an embargo period. While open access has benefits, challenges include improving research quality as some open access journals accept dubious works, and addressing high article processing charges. Tools are being developed to help identify predatory open access journals.

1. OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING
RPE 04
Dr. M. U. Raja
University Librarian
Integral University

2. Introduction
Open access publications refer to scholarly publications, such as
articles, books, and theses, that are made freely available online to
anyone, without any subscription fees or pay-per-view.
The aim of open access is to make research more accessible and to
promote the dissemination of knowledge.
Many universities and research institutions are now encouraging or
even mandating open access for PhD theses.
This means that PhD candidates are expected to publish their thesis
online in an open access repository, where it can be freely accessed
by anyone.
Some universities even provide financial support to PhD students to
cover the costs associated with publishing their thesis in an open
access repository.

3. Why open access publications?
Open access initiatives for PhD theses are gaining popularity because they
can increase the visibility and impact of a student's research.
Making the thesis freely available online can also help to promote the
student's academic profile and potentially lead to further collaborations or
job opportunities.
Additionally, open access can benefit society by allowing anyone to access
and benefit from the research that was conducted with public funds.
Another benefit of open access publications for PhD students is that it can
lead to more citations and recognition for their research, as open access
publications tend to be more widely read and cited than those that are only
available behind pay-per-view or on subscription.

4. Types of open access initiatives
There are two main types of open access initiatives:
Gold open access:
This refers to publications that are made immediately available online
through an open access publisher or journal.
The author or institution may be required to pay a fee to cover the
publication costs.
Green open access
This refers to publications that are made available through a
repository or archive, such as an institutional repository or a subject-
specific repository, after an embargo period.
The embargo period is typically determined by the publisher and can
range from a few months to several years.

5. Both types of open access initiatives aim to make scholarly work more
widely available and accessible, but they differ in the way they are made
available and the costs associated with them.
Gold open access is often considered the more immediate and convenient
option, while green open access can be a more cost-effective option for
authors and institutions.
Bronze Access
It is another kind of Open Access. Bronze open access is a term used to
describe a form of open access that refers to works that are freely available
on the internet, but which have not been formally published or peer-
reviewed.
It includes materials such as preprints, conference proceedings, technical
reports, and working papers that are made available through personal
websites, institutional repositories, or other open access platforms.

6. Unlike gold and green open access, bronze open access works are not
subject to the same quality control processes, such as peer review,
that are typically associated with traditional scholarly publishing.
However, bronze open access can still provide valuable access to
research and scholarly communication, particularly in fields where
preprints and working papers are commonly used.

7. Benefits of open access publications for PhD students
Open access publications make scholarly work available online for
free, without subscription fees or pay-per-view.
 Many universities and research institutions now require or
encourage PhD students to publish their articles in open access
repositories.
Open access for PhD students can increase the visibility and
impact of their research, as well as promote their academic profile
and potentially lead to further opportunities.
Open access can also benefit society by allowing anyone to access
and benefit from research that was conducted with public funds.
.

8. Challenges in Growth of Open Access Publishing
Research Quality
The most significant challenge is improving the quality of
research in open access articles.
With the increasing number of open access publications—some of
them having dubious backgrounds—it is getting more difficult for
researchers to identify appropriate content and determine whether
these articles have gone through a rigorous and reliable review
process.
If you are publishing in predatory journals, paying the APC fee is
all it takes to get a paper published—and the ease with which they
accept manuscripts makes them popular amongst early-stage
researchers who are not aware of the lack of authenticity of the
journal or publisher.

9. Predatory Publishers
In 2010, Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado, Denver,
released a list of questionable, scholarly open access publishers, and it
now contains over 950 publishers.
Most of the publishers are clearly unreliable companies, and Beall has
named them “predatory publishers”.
Article Processing Charges
Article processing charge (APC) covers the entire publishing cost,
and it can be a hefty fee, so introducing fair and sustainable APC
models is one of the biggest challenges of open access publishing.

10. "Predatory Publication Identification Algorithm (PPIA)"
Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) in India has developed a software tool
called "Predatory Publication Identification Algorithm (PPIA)" to help
researchers identify predatory publications.
The PPIA software tool uses a machine learning algorithm to analyze various
factors such as the journal's impact factor, publication fees, peer-review process,
and editorial board members, to identify potentially predatory journals.
The software tool compares the journal's characteristics against a database of
known predatory journals to determine the likelihood that a particular journal is
predatory.

11. The Predatory Publication Identification Algorithm (PPIA) software tool has
been made available to researchers at SPPU to help them identify predatory
journals and avoid publishing their research in them.
This can help researchers to protect their reputation and ensure that their
research is published in reputable and reliable journals, which can help to
increase the impact of their research and career prospects.
The development of the PPIA software tool highlights the growing concern
around predatory publications and the need for tools and resources to help
researchers identify and avoid them.