The Serials Crisis and Open Access: A White Paper for the Virginia Tech Commission on Research

This white paper offers an introduction to open access as well as a look at its current development. The open access movement is an attempt to free scholarly communication from restrictions on access, control, and cost, and to enable benefits such as data mining and increased citations. Open access has gained significant momentum through mandates from research funders and universities. While open access can be provided in parallel with traditional publishing, it is increasingly available as a publishing option.