Library Research Support Services

Acceptance date	The date when the (corresponding) author is notified that their output has been through peer review, had any necessary academic changes made to it, and is ready to be copy-edited, typeset, and published.
APC (Article Processing Charge)	Payment to a journal publisher for an article to be published with Gold Open Access on the publisher's website. The University of Plymouth Library is only able to pay APC invoices for UKRI grant holders due to UKRI awarding UoP a block grant for open access publishing.  [Non-APC routes to achieving Gold open access are available through our Read and Publish agreements].
Author's Accepted Manuscript (AAM)	Also known as the author's final peer-reviewed version or post-print. It will have been through the peer review process, but not typesetting. This is not the published version. See a graphical explanation.
Bronze Open Access	Bronze OA is where a publisher chooses to make an output free to access, but can revoke that access at any time as the publisher retains copyright and has not assigned a re-use licence. It is therefore not sufficient for compliance with REF and UKRI open access policies.
cOAlition S	An international consortium of research funding and performing organisations (including UKRI, the Wellcome Trust, NIHR, and European Commission) that have agreed to implement the principles of Plan S.
Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA)	An agreement which transfers copyright for a work from one party to another, e.g. from the author of an article to a journal publisher. See our licencing guidance for more information.
Corresponding author	The author who corresponds with a publisher and organises the publication of a research output, and agrees to be the point of contact for any correspondence regarding the work post-publication. For outputs to be eligible for Gold Open Access via a University of Plymouth Read & Publish agreement, the corresponding author must be affiliated with the University.
Creative Commons (CC) license	A type of copyright license that can be applied to a work, indicating that the creator/author/publisher is happy to share that work with the public under certain conditions. The copyright holder retains the copyright to the work, while the public is allowed to reuse its content. There are various types of Creative Commons license: most funders require CC BY.
Data Access Statement	Statement informing readers where they can find the data relating to and underpinning a research publication. It may take various forms depending on data availability, access, and permissions. See our full guide and examples.
Diamond Open Access	A publishing model where articles are made immediately Open Access, but where publishers do not charge fees to authors or readers. It is promoted by cOAlition S - find out more here.
DOI (Digital Object Identifier)	A unique alphanumerical digital identifier that is assigned to a research output, allowing it to be uniquely identified and easily (and reliably) accessed.  DOIs can be updated should the output be moved or the host link changed ensuring that DOIs remain a persistent identifier suitable for citing and ensuring longeivity in the scholarly record.
Early Online publication	Journal articles are often published online on the publisher's website before they are published in a formal or print issue - this is early online publication. This is the publication date that is taken into consideration for purposes of complying with Open Access policies and REF.
Embargo	Some publishers may stipulate a set period of time that must pass from publication before a research output can be made available via the Green Open Access route: this is the embargo period. REF allows embargos of up to 12 months to be compliant, though an exception can be made where a publication requires a longer embargo if it was the most appropriate publication for the output.  JISC's Open Policy Finder tool identifiers publisher embargo periods.
Gold Open Access	Gold Open Access is achieved when immediate and permanent public access is granted to the published article, usually by applying a Creative Commons (CC) license to the published work. A payment will have been made to the publisher: either by an APC or via an institutionally pre-paid Read & Publish deal.
Green Open Access	Green Open Access is achieved by ​making a version of the manuscript freely available in a repository, such as PEARL, after publication in a subscription journal. In most cases, publishers will allow the Accepted Manuscript to be deposited, but they may not allow the Version of Record (i.e. the published version) to be made freely available. The publisher may also stipulate that the Accepted Manuscript only be made accessible following a period of embargo.
Hybrid journal	Subscription journals in which only some articles are made Open Access upon payment of a fee. They are not classed as Open Access journals for purposes of compliance with some funder policies.
Institutional repository	An archive for the preservation and sharing of research produced by an institution and by individuals affiliated with it. The University of Plymouth's institutional repository is PEARL.
ISBN / ISSN	ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a unique numeric identifier for books. ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) is a unique numeric identifier for newspapers, journals, magazines, periodicals, and all print and electronic media. As books do not fall within the scope of REF, conference items published only with an ISBN, and not an ISSN, are also out of scope of REF policy.
Open Access journal	Journals that are entirely Open Access - everything published in them is permanently freely available to read without a subscription. Publication in these journals usually requires an author, or their institution or funder, to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC), except for Diamond Open Access journals. You can use DOAJ to find Open Access journals.
PEARL	PEARL (Plymouth Electronic Archive and Research Library) is the University of Plymouth's Open Access repository of full text research outputs, including research theses.  PEARL showcases the University's research and aims to increase the visibility and impact of research, enhancing the reputation of both researchers and the University.  PEARL supports open access to research, enabling you to share your outputs with other researchers and the general public.  PEARL also provides publishing functionality for UoP authors to host proceedings of local conferences and to publish UoP journals.  See PEARL guidance for more information.
Plan S	Plan S, from cOAlition S, is an initiative for Open Access publishing built on a framework of ten key principles that funding bodies are gradually incorporating into their policies.
Pre-print	The version of a manuscript that is submitted for publication, before it is formally peer-reviewed or accepted.
Pre-print server	An online Open Access archive for non-peer reviewed scholarly articles and/or pre-print articles submitted and going through a peer review process.
Publication date	The date that a research output is published. Early Online publication may take place before this publication date: for the purposes of REF and Open Access, the publication date is the earliest of these two dates.
Pure	Pure is the core element of the University of Plymouth's Research Information System (RIS). It connects with other university systems (human resources, student records, finance), and with external databases like Scopus to collect information about and create relationships between the research outputs, awards, projects, impact and activities associated with our researchers. This information is used for internal reporting and to support evaluation exercises like the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and the yearly ResearchFish submission.  Find out more about the University's RIS systems. Researchers should use Pure to deposit files to PEARL.
Read & Publish agreement	Also known as a Transformative Agreement. A contract negotiated between a research institution and a publisher, whereby APCs are encompassed within the subscription fees the institution pays to the publisher to access its content. It enables authors who are members of the institution to publish Gold Open Access through that publisher. View the University's Read & Publish agreements.
REF (Research Excellence Framework)	A periodic research assessment exercise undertaken by UK Higher Education Funding bodies and carried out by expert panels. It helps to provide evidence of the impact and benefit of research investment, to create information measures by which to inform selective allocation of research funding. See guidance for complying with REF.
Rights Retention	A strategy developed by cOAlition S to give researchers supported by cOAlition S organisations freedom to publish in any journal whilst remaining compliant with Open Access policies. It requires researchers to give notice to publishers that an Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) arising from their submission carries a CC BY licence, in accordance with their grant conditions.  See our Rights Retention guidance.
Self-archiving	Depositing your research output into an online Open Access repository, such as PEARL. Also known as Green Open Access.
Subject repository	Some funders require research outputs to be deposited to subject repositories, such as Europe PubMed Central, in addition to an institutional repository.
Submitted manuscript	The manuscript that the author(s) originally submits to the publisher for publication, before peer review and acceptance. It is not the accepted manuscript.  Can also be a pre-print.
Subscription journal	Articles published in a subscription journal can only be viewed by (paying) subscribers to that journal, or by paying for access to a single article. These articles may be made Open Access only via the Green route.
Transformative journal	A hybrid journal that has committed itself to becoming a fully Open Access journal.
UKRI	UK Research and Innovation. Encompasses various research councils.
Version of Record (VoR)	Also referred to as the published / publisher's version. The version of record is the final, published version of a research output in its final typesetting. If publishing Green Open Access, this version cannot be deposited.