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Open Access is a global movement to make scholarly content more easily discoverable and accessible by removing subscription and login barriers and in some countries it is becoming part of national grant funding policies. In the U.S. in February 2013, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a directive that requires the results of taxpayer-funded research – both articles and data – be made freely available to the general public. Recently to assist U.S. researchers in compliance, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released this Public Access Policy.
Many researchers release their previously unpublished work under a Creative Commons (CC) license, that allows you to authorize some uses of your work, while preventing others. All CC licenses require others to provide attribution to you, if they use any part of your work. You may also choose to license your work only for non-commercial purposes, meaning that it can be used freely for research or teaching, but that no one else may profit from your work financially. CC licenses are legally valid, and can be downloaded and used at no charge. Suggested reading:
