Open Access Basics

Decision-making made easier

Given the speed of innovation in scholarly communications, there are a wide variety of open access choices available to researchers. If you are in the process of trying to assess your open access options, you can save considerable time and energy by knowing the basics of Open Access. 

What is Open Access (OA)?

Open access refers to scholarly research that is freely available online, without cost or most licensing restrictions. It encourages the unrestricted sharing of research with everyone, everywhere, for the advancement of knowledge in society. 

For a quick introduction to OA, see this animated video by PhD comics, narrated in part by Nick Shockey of SPARC. 

 

Green versus Gold Open Access FAQs

What is the difference between green and gold open access?

Green OA:  an institution, author, or index collects and provides access to the pre-published version(s) of an article

Gold OA: the author pays to make the publisher version of an article publicly accessible

Which version of the paper is available to the public?

Green OA: Draft or Final Version

Gold OA: Publisher Version

When is the paper made available to the public?

Green OA: Immediately, or after an embargo period, normally between 6 months and 2 years after publication

Gold OA: Immediately after publication

Where is the paper made available?

Green: Typically through author upload to institutional repositories or personal webpages, or by indexing by subject repositories like arXiv and PubMed.

Gold: Publisher's website

Terminology

Article Processing Charges (APCs): Gold Open Access journals require APCs to cover costs related to preparing accepted manuscripts for publication, which would traditionally be recouped through subscription fees. Legitimate journals will always ask for payment after acceptance, and their fees are transparent.

Open data is the movement to make data freely available online, without financial or legal barriers. The push to make data accessible is sweeping a number of sectors; open data is available from academic researchers, governments and private sector organizations alike. 

Open education is the movement to make educational resources and practices freely available online, without financial or legal barriers. MOOCS (massive open online courses) and OERs (open educational resources) both fall under the umbrella of open education. 

Open notebooks refers to the online live sharing of primary research records (most often laboratory notebooks). 

Open science is about applying the principle of openness to the entire scientific research cycle. Open access, open data, open education and open notebooks are therefore components of open science, as are practices beyond the purview of the library, including citizen science, scientific social networks, and open peer review, for instance. 

Pre-print / submitted manuscript: a paper that has not yet been peer-reviewed, such as a working paper or your first submission to a journal.

Post-print / accepted manuscript: a paper that has passed peer-review, with revisions made by the author, but has not been copyedited, and does not bear pagination or identifying information from the journal.

Publisher’s version / PDF: a paper after peer-review, typesetting, copyediting, and formatting, i.e. the published paper in print or PDF.

Publishers sometimes use unique terms to refer to the access rights of individual journals and articles. As of July 2018, the terms for Open Access in accepted use by publishers include:

Reed Elsevier

  • Green: Green Open Access
  • Gold: Gold Open Access
  • Gold in a hybrid journal: Gold Open Access

Taylor and Francis

  • Green: Green Open Access
  • Gold: Gold Open Access, Routledge Open
  • Gold in a hybrid journal: Routledge Open Select

Wiley-Blackwell

  • Green: Green Open Access
  • Gold: Gold Open Access
  • Gold in a hybrid journal: Hybrid Gold Open Access, Online Open

Springer Nature

  • Green: Self-Archiving
  • Gold: SpringerOpen
  • Gold in a hybrid journal: Open Choice

SAGE

  • Green: Green Open Access
  • Gold: SAGE Pure Gold Open Access
  • Gold in a hybrid journal: SAGE Choice

American Chemical Society (ACS)

  • Green: ACS Articles on Request
  • Gold: ACS Open Access
  • Gold in a hybrid journal: ACS AuthorChoice

Further resources