Various Types of Open Access in Scientific Journals

Open access is an evolving path for scientific communication because it gives researchers maximum access to research related to their field and also helps the researcher to have a broader view of their research. So, scientific associations, investors, and many academics support open access and seek to raise awareness of its potential benefits. In recent years, free access has steadily gained momentum. Most magazines and publishers today have open-access channels, and authors have the right to publish their articles freely. As a result, researchers can increase their chances of being seen and read by publishing their work in reputable open access in scientific journals.

Types of open-access

Gold 

Gold open access refers to publishing in a fully open access scholarly journal, one where the publisher of the journal provides free and immediate online access to the full content of the journal and the final published versions of articles in that journal are fully open access. Articles have a Creative Commons License applied, which specifies how the use of the article. Business models for this form of open access vary.  In some cases, the publisher charges an article processing charge (APC), which may be paid by the author’s institution or funding body or by an individual researcher. As a result, APCs may also be paid as paid of transformative agreements. Directory of Open Access Journals provides a comprehensive list of open access journals and there is also a Directory of Open Access Books.

Different types of open gold access 

• Full open access journals

All articles published in such journals are freely available for readers on the journal website. Consequently, an academic institution, a learned society, or the government support the journal financially. However, some other journals may require the publication fee from the author(s), known as article processing charges (APCs) after the acceptance of the for publication.

• Hybrid journals

Hybrid open access refers to the time when the author pay the APC for one individual article. So, the article becomes available immediately after the payment. Moreover, this type of open access always has an APC associated with it and these APCs are usually higher than for fully open access journals.

• Delayed open access journals

In this model, articles become free for readers sometime after initial publication. The period for which the article is free is as the embargo period. For most journals, the embargo period is six to twelve months.

Green 

This variant of Open Access enables authors to archive their own work on a website controlled by them, or their funder, or on an independent repository. So, the deposited version of the article may or may not be final. It might be the accepted manuscript by the journal or an almost final one, after peer review.

Diamond 

Diamond open access refers to open access journals that are free for readers to access and for authors to publish in. These journals are often community-driven and supported by institutions or by national or regional infrastructure.

Bronze

Bronze open access is a freely available journal article that has no open license and hence no full access.

Black

Black open access refers to illegal open access.