Open Access is provided in different ways:
Green Open Access (Green Road)
The Green Road allows self-archiving of publications in an institutional or specialist repository. The advantages of self-archiving in these repositories rather than publishing on a website are increased visibility and long-term access and availability. Self-archiving as republishing is supported by many publishers and permitted as long as it is regulated in the publishing agreement between the publisher and the author. An addendum to the agreement can also be used (e.g. the SPARC Author Addendum); an embargo period between initial publication and republishing must be observed if necessary.
Gold Open Access (Gold Road)
The Gold Road refers to the publication of an academic work in an Open Access journal or an Open Access book as an initial publication. Such publications are immediately accessible, ideally with a Creative Commons licence that clearly regulates their subsequent use. Open Access journals and books are financed with publication fees that are paid by the author or their institution.
Diamond Open Access
Diamond Open Access (also known as Platinum Open Access) is a sub-category of Gold Open Access. However, authors pay no publication fees to publish in Open Access.
Hybrid Open Access
Many publishers offer Hybrid Open Access journals, which can only be accessed via subscriptions. However, authors can “buy back” their article in these journals, in some cases with high publication fees, so that it is immediately published Open Access. This model is controversial because institutions or libraries have to pay fees twice, i.e., a subscription fee to access or read the journal, and a publishing fee to publish the article Open Access.
Find out more:
- An overview of the history of Open Access and more information about the Open Access movement are available on the Explora platform of the ETH Library.