Open Access refers to the practice of making peer-reviewed scholarly research and literature freely available online to anyone interested.

Open means anyone can freely access, use, modify, and share for any purpose, subject, at most, to requirements that preserve provenance and openness. It does not affect authors' freedom to choose where to publish or the right not to publish.

There are two major ways to make publications open access:

1. Self-archiving

Self archiving is the practice of depositing a peer reviewed version of a publication in a repository, Biblio, and making it available in Open Access, regardless of the platform  that published your publication originally. You can upload different versions of your publication in Biblio and choose the applicable access level per file. You can also set an embargo.

Not sure which version of your publication you can upload in Biblio? Check out the tip "which full text version and format of a publication to upload?".

To register publications in our repository Biblio, check out the guide step-by-step registration of publications.

Articles

The Belgian law allows authors to make peer reviewed journal articles available in open access, in the final peer reviewed author manuscript and after an embargo period of 6 (non-SSH) to 12 (SSH) months. Check the details in the tip Open Access in Belgian legislation.

Most journal publishers allow self archiving in repositories. However, conditions may apply on which version you can make available (e.g. the author’s final peer-reviewed manuscript, a version which is peer reviewed but does not show the publisher’s layout) and an embargo may be in place (usually 6 months for STEM and 12 months for SSH). Open Policy Finder (was: Sherpa/Romeo), the database of publishers' policies on copyright and self archiving, can be used to determine the open access policy of journals and/or publishers.

If the Belgian law allows a shorter embargo period, then this takes precedence.

Books

Until recently, the focus was mainly directed to peer reviewed articles. However, more and more the focus shifts to books, among others due to the policy of research funders.

2. Publishing scholarly works in an Open Access Journal

Open Access journals provide direct open access upon publication. To find a qualitative open access journal, you can consult the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) to browse OA journals by subject. Some Open Access journals require authors to pay a fee: article processing charge (APC).

No matter where you choose to publish, always remember to upload your publications to Biblio.

You can find more information on Open Access on Open Access Belgium.

Policy UGent

As of January 1, 2023 Ghent University introduced the UGent policy on scholarly publishing, including Open Access requirements.  Among others, the mandate requires the deposit of a version of your journal article in Biblio that can be made open access in Biblio, with an option to opt-out.