Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles combined with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment. Open Access is the needed modern update for the communication of research that fully utilizes the Internet for what it was originally built to do—accelerate research. (Definition from SPARC).
Open access publishing offers two primary routes: immediate availability upon publication, or depositing a version of the work in freely accessible archives post-publication. These methods differ in timing (immediate vs. embargo), cost structures (article processing charges), version of work (preprint, post-print, published version) and where the content is made available (publisher site vs. repository).
This guide is intended to help clarify a complex and continually evolving environment for OSU researchers.
Model | Advantages | Common Barriers | Actions to Reduce Barriers |
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Diamond OA Publishing in a fully OA journal funded by libraries, academic institutions, societies, volunteers and/or funders. |
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Green OA Archiving published manuscripts in an OA repository such as Open Research Oklahoma
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Transformative Agreements* Libraries or library consortia contract with publishers for affiliated authors to publish OA at a discount in the publisher's collection of gold or hybrid journals. |
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Gold OA* Publishing in a fully OA journal after paying APCs. |
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Hybrid OA* Publishing OA in an otherwise closed-access journal after paying an APC. |
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Subscribe to Open (S2O) Publishers convert journals from subscription to OA based on sufficient level of participation by past subscribers (see Subscribe to Open Community) |
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*Any APC-based model inherently incentivizes quantity over quality for profit-driven publishers (i.e., the more articles you accept the more profit you make) which can introduce conflict of interest concerns for editors and the scholarly community.
Adapted from "Overview of OA Publishing Models", created by: Catherine Boden, DeDe Dawson Creation Date: September 2023 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Archiving your research article can make your work openly available, for free, and gets you a wider audience to increase your research impact. But, it can be a bit tricky to know your rights and choose the right version of your work to share. Here we outline the various versions of your article, how to find them, and when you can share them.
Adapted from "Article Versions Explained", by: Colleen Lyon, University of Texas Libraries. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 0 Public Domain License.
Originally adapted from How to Protect Your Work From Being Taken Down by Open Access Button. Licensed CC0