International Open Access Week is October 20–27, 2025, and this year’s theme, “Who Owns Our Knowledge?”, is an invitation to consider the systems that shape how knowledge is created, shared, and controlled. The theme highlights questions around who has access to education and research, as well as whose voices are recognized, valued, and preserved in the scholarly record.Open access (OA) is a key part of this conversation. By removing barriers to scholarly content, OA promotes a more equitable and inclusive research ecosystem. It empowers communities to reclaim ownership of the knowledge they produce and ensures that research can be used to inform policy, education, innovation, and public understanding.
Understanding Open Access
Open access refers to the free, immediate, and unrestricted availability of scholarly research. There are several models of OA publishing:
- Gold Open Access: Gold open access journals make all articles freely available on the journal's website, usually by charging the author an Article Processing Charge (APC) prior to publication.
- Hybrid Open Access: Subscription journals offer an OA option for individual publications creating a mixture of open access and closed access articles. The content is made open access by charging the author an APC.
- Green Open Access: Under the publisher's permission, authors make their work freely available by depositing a version of their article in an institutional or subject repository.
While Open Access and Public Access are often used interchangeably, they are not the same. Public Access refers to federally mandated policies, like the updated NIH Public Access Policy that requires free availability of research funded by public agencies. For a brief overview of the new NIH requirements and how they may impact your research, visit our NIH Public Access Policy GalterGuide.
Open Access Support
Transformative Agreements: Northwestern authors can publish at no cost in many journals from publishers. These agreements help reduce the financial burden of APCs while expanding access to your work. For a list of current agreements visit Open Access Support at Northwestern.- Prism Repository: Our institutional repository, Prism, preserves and shares the intellectual output of the Feinberg community. Depositing your work in Prism ensures it remains accessible and discoverable over time. For additional information visit our Prism GalterGuide.
- GalterGuides: Review our expert curated guides to learn more about Open Access Publishing and Open Access Health Resources.
Updated: October 20, 2025