Cureus

A New Era of
Open-Access Journals

What is open access and open research?

Open-access (OA) is a practice in which the research outputs, such as journal articles or books, are offered online immediately without any restrictions or cost. The no-barrier approach makes open access a useful strategy. It gives users the right to utilize and leverage the resources fully.

Open research takes publishing a step further by covering all the aspects of research, including data, code, and even peer reviews. Open research is leveraged to make a bigger contribution to society. By making every aspect of research open and accessible, open research can help solve major global problems.

Can I publish my work with open access? If yes, how?

Yes, you can definitely publish your work through open access. To do that, you need to ensure first that you are fine with your research article or book being accessed and used by a larger audience.

If your work is published through traditional subscription methods, you can still share it. We allow you to archive the accepted version of your work on your personal websites or institutional repositories after an embargo period. You can find out more.

What are the benefits of publishing OA? How will it help me?

By publishing your work OA, you can get the following mentioned benefits:

• More visibility and citations: Open-access articles are read and cited more often.
• Better collaboration: OA makes it easier to work with researchers worldwide.
• Public engagement: Everyone, not just those with subscriptions, can access and understand your research.
• Faster progress: Licenses like CC BY let others build on your work quickly.
• Cross-disciplinary connections: OA journals that cover multiple fields help you connect with a broader audience.
• Meet funding requirements: OA complies with many funding agencies' policies.

What do you mean by CC BY and how can it help researchers?

CC BY, also known as Creative Commons Attribution, is a user-friendly license that allows other researchers to freely use, share, adapt, and build upon the already existing work as long as the credit is given. It helps researchers by making their work accessible to a much wider audience, boosting the overall visibility of work. Not to mention, it also provides researchers with accessible content that they can use in their studies. In a nutshell, CC BY is a win-win approach for both researchers who want to publish their work and those who are looking for accessible content for their own studies. All Cureus journals with the OA option offer the CC BY license, which is actually a default license for the majority of Cureus fully OA journals. Check out more.

What is the payment procedure for open access?

There are costs involved in publishing OA, and authors are usually asked to pay a fee. We provide a free support service that can help authors and researchers discover funding and apply for it to cover the charges. To know more, check here .

What do you mean by open data?

We strive to help researchers in the best way possible. Thus, we are firm believers in the openness of research data, including files and codes. Our goal is to ensure that this data is easily accessible and reusable, contributing to greater transparency and collaboration in the research community.

What is a preprint?

A preprint is an early version of your research paper shared online before peer review. It's a permanent, citable record with a unique DOI. Sharing preprints allows you to get feedback, establish priority, and speed up the research process.

What is open peer review?

Open peer review means making the reviews of your paper publicly available. This process increases transparency and trust in the research process. Many publishers offer open peer review options.