Publishing
Section 4
Open Access
There are various types of open access to research outputs which generally
are through open access (usually electronic) journals or by archiving in
open access repositories. Many research institutions now have their own
repositories. There are various shades of open access, or perhaps we should
say colours! The colour (formulated by the ROMEO project) depends upon
the level of access and version of the paper to which the publisher allows
you to give access.
White
No open access and publishers do not allow you to archive
your paper on-line (although some may allow papers funded
by particular funding bodies to be archived on the back of
arrangements negotiated with those funding bodies).
Yellow
Allows your draft, uncorrected papers (preprints) i.e. early
versions of the paper prior to any amendment in line with
peer review comments and editorial changes, to be archived
on an open access basis.
Blue
Allows your final version or a pdf of the published version
(postprints) to be archived on an open access basis.
Green
Allows all versions of your paper, preprints and postprints, to
be archived on an open access basis
Gold
Top of the pile - gives unrestricted, on-line, free-of-charge
(to the reader) access to the final published version of your
paper (and it can also be archived).
Creative Commons - People talk about giving open access to works using
a Creative Commons' licence. This provides a standardised way to grant
copyright permissions. In fact there is a variety of Creative Commons'
licences (http://creativecommons.org/licenses). What they usually mean
is the most accommodating licence, the Attribution Licence (CC BY),
which lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even
commercially, as long as they credit you (your institution) for the original
creation.
