Library Research Support Services
The University Library supports UoP affiliated researchers to publish articles openly through the arrangement of Read & Publish agreements, management of the UKRI open access block grant and awareness of external funder requirements as well as the provision of our publishing platform and repository, PEARL, to which authors can deposit Accepted Manuscripts using Pure.
Before submitting your work to a journal, check that the publisher will not charge you a fee you cannot pay
There is no central fund for open access payments and no requirement or expectation from funders or the University that outputs should be published Gold Open Access over any other open access route.
Is my journal part of a Read & Publish agreement?
- Note the publisher name and look for the publisher in the University's list of Read & Publish agreements
- Check the advice against each publisher agreement to see whether it includes all journals by that publiser or only the Hybrid-access journals (and any other restrictions).
- If the agreement covers all titles, go ahead and submit.
- If the agreement only covers 'hybrid' titles and you are not sure whether the journal you are intending to submit to is hybrid access or fully gold open access, the simplest way to check is to look up the title on DOAJ.org - a Directory of fully Open journals. If a match is found, it is a fully gold open access title. If there is no match, the title is hybrid access.
We do not recommend looking at individual journal websites for clarity on open access options as this can be misleading. If you are unsure whether the journal you wish to publish in offers a fee free route to publishing Open Access, please contact your Information Specialist or openresearch@plymouth.ac.uk to check before submitting to the journal.
Funded authors should see specific guidance pages per funder. For example, UKRI awards the University funding for Open Access charges but this fund carries strict conditions on eliglible venues for compliance with their OA policy.
OA article types explained
Green
Green is a way to achieve open access through repositories and is a no cost route to open access publishing. Authors will publish behind a paywall in the traditional way and self-archive (or 'deposit') a copy of the peer-reviewed, Author's Accepted Manuscript into an institutional or subject repository.
Green OA can be achieved in journals which are either completely paywalled or offer 'hybrid' open access i.e. offer the author an option to pay an APC (Article Processing Charge) for a particular paper. In the latter, the offer to pay the APC should be turned down in order to achieve fee-free publishing and Open Access is instead achieved via self-archiving of the Accepted Manuscript through Pure to PEARL.
- REF: Green open access is the current REF Open Access policy
- PEARL: UoP's institutional repository
- Pure: UoP authors submit to PEARL via Pure
- Green OA can be even more discoverable than Gold as repositories are harvested by more search engines
Cost
There is no cost to authors to publish green open access.
Licence
Authors' Accepted Manuscripts are usually deposited under licence from the publisher i.e. deposited in repositories permitted by publishers, subject to an embargo on access (usually a few months) and must carry a link back to the version of record.
Increasingly, funders are encouraging authors to retain the rights of these manuscripts in order that authors can make green open access deposits immediately open and licenced CC-BY for maximum re-use. Therefore, authors may need to negotiate with their publisher the retention of these rights upon submission. Please contact the library with any queries about embargos and licencing of Green Open Access outputs: openresearch@plymouth.ac.uk
Hybrid
Hybrid is a business model which legacy paywalled/subscription journal publishers have adopted in recent years. They continue to charge institutions annual subscriptions yet will also accept a Gold Open Access fee (known as an APC - Article Processing Charge) for individual articles. Therefore, an individual issue of a journal can comprise both paywalled and open articles on the publisher site.
Cost
This route carries a cost if Open Access is selected - fees are wide ranging depending on the publisher.
Options for OA publsihing in Hybrid journals:
- Read & Publish agreements: The University has a number of Read & Publish agreements to cover the costs of Open publishing across some publishers' hybrid titles (NB: UoP author must be corresponding author).
- Authors can follow the Green route to Open Access in hybrid titles if the University does not have a Read & Publish agreement. This route is a fee-free route involving publishing behind a paywall and self-archiving (depositing the Accepted Manuscript via Pure to PEARL).
- Funder advice: certain funders including UKRI and Wellcome will not pay for open APC fees in certain hybrid journals. Please contact the library prior to submission if you are funded to confirm your chosen journal is compliant with your funder: openresearch@plymouth.ac.uk
Licence
All articles published Gold open access in Hybrid venues should be licenced CC-BY and not any other CC licence. Copyright should always be the Author and not the Publisher.
Gold
Gold is a business model that moves the costs of publishing from the reader/reader's institution at the point of requiring read-access, to the author/author's institution prior to publication. A 'fully Gold' title or platform should have no read/subscriber fees (paywalls) which means it is only possible to publish in such a venue if the costs of publishing (known as an APC - Article Processing Charge) in that journal can be covered.
Cost
This route carries a cost - fees are wide ranging depending on the publisher.
Options for covering the APC payment are limited to:
- Read & Publish agreements: The University has a number of Read & Publish agreements which sometimes cover the cost of publishing in publishers' fully Gold titles. Please note, coverage in fully Gold titles is not a feature of every agreement. (NB: UoP author must be corresponding author).
- UKRI funded authors: the University has been awarded a grant to cover the costs of publishing in fully Gold venues. (This fund is not permitted for 'hybrid' titles).
Licence
All articles in fully Gold venues should be licenced CC-BY and not any other CC licence. Copyright should always be the Author and not the Publisher.
Diamond
Diamond is a form of publisher Open Access that carries no cost to the reader or author. Examples of Diamond Open Access are University Presses or locally hosted journals such as UoP's Plymouth Student Scientist or not-for-profit models such as Open Library of Humanities. Funders are investing in Diamond OA publishing initiatives which can support a healthier, more financially sustainable publishing ecosystem for the future.
Cost
There is no cost to Open Access publishing for authors through the Diamond route. The article will be Open on the publisher platform and costs are met though consortia funded business models.
How can I find a Diamond journal?
DOAJ endeavours to index all fully Open Access journals from publishers and institutional presses according to a transparent code of practice. DOAJ indicates if the journal charges a fee for publishing (Gold) or offer a fee fee route to publishing (Diamond).
Search for a subject or journal title and filter to see titles without fees to find 'Diamond' OA title. It is recommended to also filter for 'author retains all rights':
Licence
Publishers purporting to support Diamond OA must fully support Open Access drivers and as such, should ensure that work is licenced CC-BY and is copyright of the author, not the publisher.
Bronze
Bronze is a type of Open Access that does not adhere to agreed definitions of Open Access and is not compliant with funder policies. The publisher may decide to make your article open (e.g. for a promotional feature on a temporary basis) but they will retain the rights and can remove the open access/restrict use of the open content as and when they wish. Full open access (Gold/Diamond) on the publisher site should always carry a CC-BY licence that is copyright of the Author.
Cost
- There should not be no cost to bronze OA as this is not a route that guarantees long term access and reuse of the work - do not pay for bronze OA.
- In many Bronze OA cases, the publisher operates a paywall so self-archiving (depositing your Accepted Manuscript into Pearl via Pure) will achieve OA.
- If the journal only operates an author-pays route but is not guaranteeing long term OA or ensuring an open licence (CC-BY), you may have found a predatory publisher. Seek advice from the library: openresearch@plymouth.ac.uk
Licence
Rights are usually retained by the publisher and the publisher can revoke access at any time should they wish.
