Publishing Your Research

Open Access (OA) is a publishing model that makes digital literature freely available online rather than behind a paywall. There are levels of open access which can indicate the following:

• Who owns the copyright to the work? The authors or the publishers?
• Is the work free for readers AND the author? Or does the author have to pay?
• Is is being made permanently OA?
• When it is available to the public for free after publication?

It's important to note that the OA movement is changing and evolving all the time! Levels are added and redefined as time goes on and the publishing landscape changes!

Gold OA

• Final version of the article is freely and permanently accessible to everyone 
• Available immediately after publication
• Copyright of the article is retained by authors
  • Most permission barriers are removed
• Authors are usually charged an article processing charge (APC) by the publisher

Green OA

• Sometimes referred to as "self-archiving"
• A version of an author’s manuscript is placed into a digital repository that is separate from the publisher
• This version is freely accessible for everyone that has access to the repository
• Version of manuscript dependent on the funder or publisher
• Copyright for these articles is usually retained by the publisher
• Can be an embargo period between when the article is published and when the author can place it in a repository
• Usually free for the author

Hybrid OA

• Refers to publishers/journals who publish a mix of traditionally published and open access articles

Diamond OA

• Publications/journals that publish open access without charging a fee
• These publications rely on donations, funders, philanthropists, grants, advertisements, etc. to fund their operations

Jamie-farquharson, CC BY 4.0., via Wikimedia Commons

Open access policies can vary widely so it is important to familiarize yourself with each journal's specific open access policy if you are interested in publishing with them. You can go to the journal's website to find open access policy but there are other sites that can help you find open access policies.