Open Access Research

Why Cal State LA Should Adopt an Open-Access Policy?

1. Increases Visibility and Impact of Research
An OA policy ensures that Cal State LA faculty can self archive their scholarly articles and making them freely available to the public. This increases readership, citation rates, and overall impact—particularly valuable for a public institution committed to serving a diverse and often underrepresented community.

2. Promotes Equity in Knowledge Access
Not everyone has access to expensive journal subscriptions. OA removes those barriers, making knowledge accessible to students, researchers, and the general public—both locally and globally. This aligns with Cal State LA’s mission of inclusive excellence and community empowerment.

3. Supports Student Success and Faculty Advancement
Self-archiving in an institutional repository makes it easier for students to access quality research materials without cost, enriching their learning. Faculty benefit by gaining broader exposure, which can enhance reputations, lead to more collaborations and support tenure and promotion cases.

4. Aligns with CSU System and National Trends
Many institutions, including others in the CSU system and the UC system, have already adopted OA policies. This is becoming standard practice in higher education, and Cal State LA adopting such a policy keeps it in step with current academic values.

5. Reinforces Public Investment in Research
Much of the research at Cal State LA is supported by public funds. Making that research openly available is a way to give back to the taxpayers and demonstrate transparency and accountability in public scholarship.

6. Enhances Institutional Reputation
OA policies reflect a university’s commitment to innovation, transparency, and public service. It can improve Cal State LA’s standing among peers, funders, and prospective students.

• Nonexclusive permission: After granting nonexclusive permission, you still retain ownership and complete control of the copyright in your writings, subject only to this prior license. You can exercise your copyrights in any way you see fit, including transferring them to a publisher if you so desire.
• Scholarly articles: Faculty’s scholarly articles are articles that describe the fruits of their research and that they give to the world for the sake of inquiry and knowledge without expectation of payment. Such articles are typically presented in peer-reviewed scholarly journals.
• Open dissemination / open-access repository: Journal articles stored and made available on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful, noncommercial purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.
• Irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license: the permission granted may not be taken back; there are no fees associated with the permission granted; and the permissions apply worldwide.
• Copyright: Copyright is a bundle of five rights:
  • the right to reproduce,
  • the right to prepare derivative works (e.g. translations),
  • the right to distribute,
  • the right to display publicly, and
  • the right to perform publicly.

Acknowledgment: Scholarly Communication: MIT Libraries https://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/mit-open-access/open-access-policy/