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Open Access

A brief guide about open access

What is Open Access?

Open access (OA) refers to information that is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. This can include journals, books, databases, and more. Learn more.

While OA is an evolving form of scholarly publishing, many OA journals comply with peer-review processes and maintain high publishing standards. More information

Open Access Models

 
OA Model Description Associated Author Fees
Green OA Refers to the author or a third party archiving the author-
accepted manuscript (AAM)23 by depositing the paper into a
freely available public access repository, such as an agency-
designated repository.
No fee.
Gold OA Refers to the final version of record (VOR)24 of an article
published in a fully open access journal that makes all
articles immediately, permanently, and freely available on
the journal’s website.
Author-facing article
processing charges (APCs)
may be charged.
Diamond OA Diamond OA is considered a subset of Gold OA and may also
be referred to as “Platinum OA.” Refers to the publisher, or
the publisher’s sponsor, covering costs for production and
for providing immediate and free access to the VOR.
No fee.
Hybrid OA Refers to articles that are published in a subscription journal,
but whose version of record is nevertheless made freely
available based on the author’s payment of an APC to the
publisher or journal.
APCs charged to the author.

Based on OSTP. (2024). Updated Report to the U.S. Congress on Financing Mechanisms for Open Access Publishing of Federally Funded Research. Office of Science and Technology Policy, Washington, DC, USA.

Attribution and License

This guide was created using many resources, many of them are linked throughout the guide and was adapted from the Open Access guide created by Alexa Hight at TAMU-CC.