Open Access

Open Access (OA) refers to the practice of allowing anyone to read academic journal articles, etc. free of charge with no restrictions, and to even make them reusable under conditions set by the copyright holder.

By allowing public access to research results throughout the entire world, it is expected to contribute to the generation of interdisciplinary research and innovation, ensure the transparency of research results, and have the effect of giving back to society. Additionally, it provides the following kinds of benefits to the author.

・Authors can more widely supply opportunities to access their research results.

・The potential of an increase in citations of the work will rise.

・It can lead to an increase in name recognition of the researcher.

・When an author makes their own research results publicly available, this means the results can be checked at any time.

The University has set forth "The Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Open Access Policy" (Established at the March 18, 2024 Board of Directors Meeting) and "The Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Open Access Policy Implementation Guidelines" (September 19, 2024 University Information Committee Meeting), and is promoting the Open Access of research results.

Types of Open Access

Gold OA

This is a method wherein payment by the author of an Article Processing Charge (APC) ensures Open Access simultaneously with publishing of the academic paper.

• Hybrid OA
  This is when an academic paper is included in a paid subscription academic journal, but academic papers for which the author has paid an APC are available for Open Access.
• Full OA
  This is when all academic papers included in a journal are available for Open Access.

Green OA (Self Archiving)

This is a method of ensuring Open Access in which the author publicly provides an academic paper to a repository in their institution or research field, a preprint server associated with their institution or research field, or similar platforms. In this method, the author does not have to pay expenses to publicly release the paper, but a certain level of conditions may be imposed by the rules of the publisher, academic society, etc. for the version of the academic paper that can be publicly released (the accepted manuscript, the version of record, etc.).
TUAT operates Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Repository.

Other methods

• Diamond OA
  This is a method of making an academic paper available for Open Access through payment of expenses by a research institution, public funding institution, publisher, academic society, etc., instead of by the author. This is also sometimes called Platinum OA.
• Bronze OA
  This is when an academic paper is made public free of charge on the publisher's website because it is a currently popular theme, or a certain amount of time has passed since the academic paper was made available. The conditions for reuse, etc., are often unclear.

How to publicly provide access to an academic paper using Green OA

Publicly release on the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Repository

Faculty members and graduate students who are registered, or were in the past registered, at the University may publicly release to the University academic institutional repository any academic journal articles, etc. for which the author's institutional information is listed as this University.
For information on registration and public releasing, refer to this link.

Publicly release to an external institution repository or preprint server

Academic papers can be made available for Open Access by publicly releasing them on a repository specializing in a specific academic field or a preprint server which allows public release of academic papers before undergoing peer review (preprint papers).

Subject repositories and preprint servers

• Biomedical science : PubMed Central(PMC)
  A biomedical field repository operated by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Mathematics / physics : arXiv
  A preprint server covering fields such as physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering, systems science, and economics
• Life science : bioRxiv
  A preprint server for the life science fields
• Chemistry : ChemRxiv
  A preprint server for chemistry and related fields
• Medical science : medRxiv
  A preprint server for medical science, clinical research, and related fields

Creative Commons License (CC License)

CC license overview

This is a tool for the author to express their intent regarding conditions for reusing works.
Works displaying a CC license are available for secondary use within the scope of the conditions set forth by the CC license.

Types of CC licenses

In the CC license (version 4.0), there are six possible CC license types that can be attached to a work to specify conditions for secondary use, created by combining four basic elements (BY: Attribution, NC: Noncommercial, ND: No Derivatives, and SA: Share Alike).

For more information about the CC license, refer to 「About CC Licenses」.

The difference between Open Access and free access

In the aspect of allowing access to academic papers free of charge, they are the same. However, there are differences in whether the conditions for reuse are explicitly indicated.

• Open Access
  Work can be reused freely under the conditions specified by the copyright holder in a CC license, etc.
• Free access
  Because the conditions for reuse are vague, it is necessary to check the usage conditions with the copyright holder.