The Importance of Open Access Research Journals

There are many ways that authors go about publishing their research, and online journals are particularly popular. There are differences between journals, with one major difference being that some journals cost money to read their contents whereas others are free, or open access.

Journals that cost money go about charging their readers in a variety of ways. One way is by charging a subscription fee where they get monthly access to the journal and any new articles that are published through the journal at that time. Journals can also charge readers to buy access to one volume or an article within the volume.

Open access journals are different because they do not make readers pay to read authors' research. Open access journals can cover a wide range of topics such as biology, computer science, humanities, law, and music just to name a few. The Indiana University Journal of Undergraduate Research (IUJUR) is an open access journal that all IU students can publish their research in, and is an interdisciplinary journal with the four main topics including Humanities, Social Sciences, Applied Sciences, and Natural Sciences.

Open access journals are an essential part of research and building the research community. Open access journals promote interdisciplinary research, collaboration, and innovation.

Open access journals promote interdisciplinary research because researchers from different fields are more inclined to read research on different topics when they have free access to the articles. When they don’t have access to research on topics different from their own, they are less likely to expand beyond their field and collaborate with others.

Researchers are also more likely to collaborate with their peers when journals are openly accessible because these journals foster the exchange of information quickly; furthermore, openly accessible articles will be more commonly cited by other researchers. Openly accessible research is also more favorably viewed after the events of the COVID-19 pandemic because of the new prevalence of sharing ideas to confront an emerging threat. This helps promote more connections and collaboration between researchers.

Finally, openly accessible research helps to drive more innovation in research fields. When research is openly accessible, researchers have access to new ideas, concepts, and methods, and are able to more quickly modify and build upon research that has already been done.

There are so many benefits to research being openly accessible, and it is gaining more and more popularity. Research is done for communities to gain more understanding about the world around us, and it can do more harm than good to restrict peoples’ access to research.

IUJUR is an open access journal that publishes the research of all IU students who submit to the journal, and because of this we promote a culture of curiosity and innovation across all IU campuses. More journals should consider becoming open access in order to promote curiosity, innovation, and collaboration across all types of research communities who use their journals.