Open access publishing

Open Access to scientific publications

Ensuring open access to scientific publications is the primary way to make scientific knowledge publicly available and usable. Open access requires an open license that allows not only reading the publications but also freely using them.

When publishing with open access, several models are distinguished based on payment method and license openness:

• Gold Open Access: The publisher immediately makes all articles freely available for reading under an open license that permits sharing and reuse. Most gold open-access journals charge an article processing fee.
• Diamond Open Access: The publisher immediately makes all articles freely available under an open license without charging any fees to the author.
• Green Open Access: The author deposits the accepted and peer-reviewed manuscript in an open repository. Generally, scholarly publishers do not restrict this type of publishing, but some may impose an embargo period. Green open access allows free reading of publications but does not guarantee reuse under an open license.
• Bronze Open Access: The article is freely readable on the publisher’s website but is not made available under an open license for reuse.
• Hybrid Journals: Some scientific journals use a model where part of the articles are available only for a fee, while some are freely accessible under an open license.

Open Access publishing

A researcher has two main options for open-access publishing:

→ Publishing in an OA journal (OA Publishing, Gold OA) means making a peer-reviewed article available free of charge in an open-access scientific journal. Some journals charge authors a fee for this (Article Processing Charge, APC), and some do not. In certain cases, the costs of a researcher's OA publishing are covered under a Transformative Agreement (Pay and Publish model) and then the researcher can publish the OA article for free or at a reduced price.

          You can use the Journal Checker Toollink opens in new page to check the journal's compliance.

→ Self-archiving (Green Open Access), i.e. a version of an article published in a scientific journal is made available and archived in a chosen repository:

• institutional (e.g. EMU DSpacelink opens in new page);
• field-specific (e.g. PlutoFlink opens in new page);
• multidisciplinary (e.g. Zenodolink opens in new page).

NB! Regardless of the method a researcher chooses, it is good practice to make the article available in a repository. The best way to find a suitable repository is through Open DOAR (Directory of Open Access Repositories).link opens in new page

As a rule, commercial publishers of scientific journals allow the archiving of a manuscript (pre-print, AOM – Author’s Original Manuscript) and/or a peer-reviewed manuscript (post-print, AAM – Author Accepted Manuscript) in parallel with journal publication. However, it is important to check the specific conditions and consider any possible embargo.

Useful tool: Open Policy Finder

The Open Policy Finderlink opens in new page (formerly Sherpa services) is a tool that helps researchers and institutions discover open access and open publishing policies of journals, publishers, and funders. The Open Policy Finder supports informed publishing decisions by providing up-to-date information on copyright, self-archiving, and compliance with open access mandates.