What are Open Access Journals?
Answer
When tackling large research questions, collaboration among researchers is essential, and since the first issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society was disseminated in 1665, this collaboration has been highly dependent on the publishing industry. However, since the advent of the Internet, scientists no longer require access to the latest hard copy of their favorite journal to keep in touch with the most recent developments. Indeed, it is no longer necessary to leave the lab and spend all afternoon in the library stacks – much of the information needed to do research is available on our own personal computers.
In modern society, research is disseminated through many venues, including social media sites, blogs, Twitter, and open access (OA) scholarly journals that are freely available to anyone with Internet access. As opposed to traditional journals, which often charge readers hefty fees to access journal content, OA journals provide content for free on the web and charge researchers to publish their findings.