What is OpenAccess ?
Open Access as defined in Budapest Initiative signifie means “Its free availability on the public Internet [peer-reviewed journal literature], permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, browse them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the Internet itself”».
There are mainly two ways to implement open access to publications :
- The green open access : The article to be published, or peer-reviewed final manuscript, is archived (deposited) online by authors (or one of their representatives) in a repository before, during or after publishing. The software used for the deposit usually allows authors to delay access online to their article. It is called the "embargo period".
- The gold open access : The article is released upon publication and there is no payment of publication costs for readers who have subscribed. The most common economical model is based on single payment by authors. Costs (referred to as APCs) are very often paid by the university or the research institute to which authors belong, or the funding agency supporting their research. In other cases, open access publication costs are covered by grants or other funding models.
The green open access is currently the School's favorite !
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Various editorial modes
Various OpenAccess editorial modes
Publishing in a free Open Access journal
Open Access journals do not require additional publication costs (APCs).
Contrary to common belief, the majority of Open Access journals do not charge publication costs (APCs). These journals are listed in DOAJ : Directory of Open Access Journals.
In DOAJ, in "Advanced Search" mode, you only have to select "No costs" under "Publication costs" to display only journals without APCs.
Journals + APC
They are fully Open Access journals, for which additional publication costs (APCs) are payable.
This type of publication is known as "author-payer model".
For the list of Open Access "author-payer" journals, click on DOAJ in "Advanced Search" mode, "Has charges" and "Conditional charges" entries, under "Publication charges".
Hybrid journals
Hybrid journals charge twice: Open Access dissemination cost and subscription to the journal.
Most major scientific publishers (Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, etc.) now offer so-called "hybrid" journals: they are accessible only under subscription, but authors are free to publish their works in Open Access on payment of additional publication costs (APCs).
Examples : Wiley OnlineOpen, Springer Open Choice, etc.
The institution thus pays twice: on the one hand, subscription to the journal, generally included in a package or a collection; on the other hand, publication costs or APCs. In the meanwhile, the publisher is successful on both counts!
This is the reason why we do not recommend selecting this option to authors !
This guide will help you find out to what extent access to a journal is free :