Visibility, impact and quality
It is easier for a larger audience to find open access publications than articles published in subscription-based journals. Previous research has concluded that articles that are freely accessible are read and cited more (Swan 2010 The Open Access Citation Advantage). An article deposited in the institutional repository is easily found also in search engines services such as Google Scholar. When an article is easily accessible, it is more used and cited, which adds to the visibility and impact of the author.
Open access also increases the transparency of research, the possibility of repetition, and therefore, the reliability of the research rises.
Research available for all
Research results made openly available benefits the whole research community and make it possible also for developing countries with limited resources for database licenses to access research. Research results made freely accessible democratize science, improve scientific communication and smooth out differences between various countries' research institutions. Publicly funded research is accessible also to the business sector as well as the general public.
Research funders require open research
Many research funders, national as well as international, requires research results to be openly available. In some cases also the research data may be published open access. Research results may be published in an open access journal or self-archived in an institutional repository.
Key OA benefits Sparc Europe
Many research funders require that the research results should be published openly available. The most important funders of research in Finland require, as far as possible, that the research is published open access, i.e. the Academy of Finland, Business Finland and the European Commission.