'Open-Access periodicals are poor quality and try to publish anything and everything.'
FALSE: the selection and assessment (peer-reviewing) processes are identical to those of traditional publishing models.
However, there are fraudulent ‘predator’ publications that do not perform real peer reviews. As a result, you must use a critical approach when choosing the publisher or periodical you want to submit your publication to.
'Open Access is not suitable for all kinds of publications, such as books.'
FALSE: Open Access can be useful for all kinds of publications.
The sale of printed copies of a book may increase due to the visibility offered by an Open-Access electronic version.
Example: the book « Pourquoi l’immigration? », by Jean-Michel Lafleur, which is available on ORBi, sold many copies in bookshops, despite the lack of advertising and availability.
Furthermore, there are Open-Access book publications like DOAB.
'Publishing under Open Access facilitates plagiarism.'
FALSE: open access does not mean that readers can copy and use publications in any manner they like.
Authors retain their intellectual property rights, which is often not the case under the ‘traditional’ publishing model.
Direct access to full texts makes it easier to detect plagiarism with verification tools.
'If I disseminate under open access, I lose all my intellectual property rights.'
FALSE: disseminating under open access does not mean that you waive your rights and does not prevent you from profiting from your work.
Signing a CTA (Copyright Transfer Agreement) is the only way to transfer your rights to the publisher. Even in this case, thanks to the recent amendment to Belgian copyright law, you retain the right to disseminate the text of your scientific articles via an institutional repository.
'Open Access is expensive.'
FALSE: Open-Access periodicals do not often have publication fees. Only 30% request a financial contribution from the authors, depending on the periodical.
However, some publishing firms require unjustified financial contributions.
‘ResearchGate, Academia.edu, MyScienceWork, etc. are Open-Access platforms or open archives.'
FALSE: you may upload publications to these platforms, but the publishers’ authorisations, as they pertain to institutional repositories and open archives, do not necessarily apply.
It is preferable to submit your publications to repositories or open archives and link your social networking profiles there rather than the other way round, as these networks retrieve your publications from these repositories and archives anyway.