Open access mandates are policies adopted by research institutions (colleges/universities, funding agencies, government agencies, etc.) that require authors to archive their research output in a repository that is freely accessible. The goal of an open access mandate is to promote free access to quality research to as wide of an audience as possible.

Here are some examples of research institutions and funding agencies with open access mandates:

• Connecticut College
• MacArthur Foundation
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• National Institutes of Health
• National Science Foundation
• University of Rhode Island

For a complete list of institutions with open access mandates, click on links below. ​

A down-side to the growing trend of open access publishing is a rise in online predatory publishers, seeking monetary gain as their sole purpose.  These are publishers that do not follow the ethical and professional practices of legitimate open access journals.  Often they have no clear editorial board, no established peer-review process, few publication policies, and little or no contact information. You may encounter predatory journal publishers in a number of  ways, but here are some of the most common:

• After creating a journal which is not peer-reviewed or edited, publishers spam researchers with offers to publish their work for a fee.  In some cases, the fee occurs as an invoice after the article is published. 
• Frequently they will contact new authors (particularly graduate/undergraduate student authors) and offer to publish work in exchange for the copyright. They then post the work on Amazon or other sites and print a copy on demand for anyone who orders it (usually almost no one).

If you receive a "too good to be true" communication about your scholarship, be wary. Listed below are some resources to help you avoid predatory journals. Librarians are happy to help investigate the legitimacy of any publication.