Open Access Policy

This journal provides public access to all its content, following the principle that making research freely available generates greater global knowledge exchange. Such access is associated with increased readership and citation of an author's work. For more information on this approach, visit the Public Knowledge Project, which developed this system to enhance the academic and public quality of research by distributing OJS as well as other software supporting the public access publication system for academic sources.

Open Access Statement

Open Access is a broad international academic movement seeking free and open online access to academic information, such as publications and data. When anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, and use information for education or other purposes within legal agreements, the publication is termed 'open access,' as there are no technical barriers.

Open access is also the term for a new business model for academic publishing that makes research information available to readers at no cost. It contrasts with the subscription model, where readers access academic information, usually through a library, by paying a subscription fee.

This movement has several advantages: increased visibility and usage of academic research findings; more people can read academic research results, including those who otherwise wouldn’t have access because they cannot afford an expensive journal subscription. New ideas can be disseminated more quickly and broadly, which in turn triggers new research studies; it serves as an impetus for knowledge. Companies also have broad access to the latest scientific ideas, upon which they can build. Since open access also implies wider reuse, recent knowledge can be immediately used in teaching.

There are also criticisms: In science and medicine, especially, researchers are ranked by their ability to publish in journals with high impact factors. However, it takes time for new journals, both traditional and open, to acquire an impact factor. Only then are they of interest to researchers. The number of fully open access journals of high quality varies greatly among different disciplines. Some disciplines have very few or insufficient options. Researchers may receive spam from questionable quality open access journals that request a significant amount of funding behind this offer.

The principles of open access are established in the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003). This declaration has been signed by many international organizations for academic research, including all Dutch universities and research organizations.

Open Science encompasses open access to academic publications, research data, learning tools, software, etc. In the case of research data, we refer to open data. Open data offers many benefits for scholarship. It increases the visibility of research results, is citable thanks to digital object identifiers (DOIs), and encourages the reuse of data for new research questions and verification purposes.

It is worth reiterating that the principles of open access are established in the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003). The document can be viewed at the link: https://openaccess.mpg.de/Berlin-Declaration. The Portuguese version can be viewed at the link: https://openaccess.mpg.de/67693/BerlinDeclaration_pt.pdf.

The Brazilian Journal of Environment is aligned with the principles of the Open Access Declaration.

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