Open Access (OA) simply means making research publications free for the public to read, and this can help anyone to benefit from the research and even cite it later. Apart from citing, Open Access research can also be re-used for commercial purposes.
Types of Open Access Publication
Green Open Access: It is also known as self-archiving. It is based on the publication of published or pre-published work for public usage. It often follows the embargo period (the period which accesses to the journal is denied users who has not paid.) Green open access does not require the author to pay Article publishing charge.
Gold Open Access: This refers to works published in an open journal through a journal or via the publisher’s website. This also means the final part of an author’s article is free online and also available for anyone. However, publishing Gold open access requires access to publication charges. The author also retains copyright to the work.
Gratis Open Access: This simply means that a published work is freely available online although some licensing and restrictions may still be included.
Libre Open Access: Libre open access means the published work is totally free to access and it is not bound to any copyright and licensing restrictions.
Some other things to Know about Open Access Publication
Article Publishing Charge: This is also known as the article processing charge. It is also known as publication fee. It is charged to authors to make their work available via open access in either hybrid or open access journal. The fee may be either paid by the author, the author’s institution or the research founder. It is most times associated with making an author’s work gold open-access type of publication.
Embargo period: This is a period which access to journals is denied to users who have not paid for access. The embargo period separates the period when a subscription is needed from a period when a subscription is not needed when anyone will be able to access the journal. It is also the time set by the publisher when access to the digitally archived version of the article is restricted until the embargo period expires.
Institutional Repository: An institution digital platform that mainly deals with digitalizing scholarly works such as reports, articles, books and other academic-related outputs.
Creative common licenses: It spells out to what extent other authors can go by using a published work. The body of the licenses includes attribution commercial which states that other authors can build upon a published work or remix only demanding credit to the published work. It is stated non-commercially that, although any author can use a published work, they don’t have to license their imitation on the same term. Also, in attribution to commercial and non-derivatives, any author can remix or build upon work but the author must not use it for commercial purposes.
Article Versions
There are different versions of article ranging from the inception of it to the writing stage and the final stage. Knowing these versions of articles will help the author to know when to share in open access and other rights the author has to the work.
Author’s Original Manuscript or Pre-print: The is the first version of the article before peer review or editing.
Accepted Manuscript: This is the accepted version of the articles. This is when the article has passed through editing and peer review.
Final Published Version: This version includes all peer-review changes and edition alongside the inclusion of index and other important enhancements by its licensors’.
