Step 1. Choose a journal
Step 7. If accepted (often after serveral revisions), sign an author agreement (copyright and author's rights)
Step 10. Archive and improve access to your work as required (by funders) and as allowed (by your author agreements)
“Open Access” (OA) is a term commonly used for a movement that promotes free availability and unrestricted use of research and scholarship. OA literature is digital, online, free of charge to the reader, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions, so there are no price barriers and no permission barriers. (Watch Open Access 101, from SPARC from Karen Rustad on Vimeo.)
What OA is NOT....
"It is important to point out that Open Access does not affect peer-review; articles are peer-reviewed and published in journals in the normal way. There is no suggestion that authors should use repositories instead of journals. Open Access repositories supplement and do not replace journals. Some authors have feared that wider availability will increase plagiarism: in fact, if anything, Open Access serves to reduce plagiarism. When material is freely available the chance that plagiarism is recognised and exposed is that much higher."
How can I take part?