Measuring the Degrees of Openness of Scholarly Journals with the Open Access Spectrum (OAS) Evaluation Tool

HowOpenIsIt is a guide created by SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), PLOS (Public Library of Science), and OASPA (Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association) to describe an array of policies a journal can have in the continuum between Open and Closed. The OAS Evaluation Tool uses the HowOpenIsIt guide to measure the degree of openness of journals of all kinds with scores between 0 and 100. A total of 1,005 journal samples, both OA and non-OA journals in various languages and from various parts of the world, were evaluated and scored with the OAS Evaluation Tool by a team of information professionals in 2015 based on the policies posted on journals' websites. This article reports the findings of the OAS evaluation.