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Open Access Publishing

Routes to Open Publishing

Open Access publishing makes research outputs (eg articles, data) accessible free of charge online and without subscription barriers, sometimes after an agreed period has elapsed since initial publication. It complements and extends the established practices and rigorous selection of publications in peer reviewed journals and elsewhere, operating in parallel with conventional publication channels. 

Most journal publishers permit the archiving (also known as self-archiving) of your final draft post-refereeing without the publisher’s type-setting, formatting, logos and pagination (also known as the post-print) in an institutional repository such as the University of Galway Research Repository. Publishers may specify an embargo on access to the fulltext and that only the pre or post-print versions are used for self-archiving. 

There are two main routes to open access publishing, the Green and Gold routes. 

Green Open Access typically involves depositing the final manuscript version of your publication in an institutional repository such as the University of Galway Research Repository. Alternative approaches include deposit in a subject repository like PubMed Central or publication in any of more than 10,000 open access journal listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals.

Gold Open Access operates on the basis of paying an Article Processing Charge (APC) to the publisher of a subscription journal so that your article is made available without charge to the reader.

The University of Galway supports Green Open Access via University of Galway Research Repository which involves no costs on your part.

Read more ...

Green Open Access

  • Publish in a journal and deposit the final draft post-refereeing without the publisher's type-setting, formatting, logos, or pagination (also known as the post print) in an institutional repository such as University of Galway Research Repository, also known as self-archiving

  • Free for users to download

  • Post print i.e. the final manuscript of the publication, after peer review and editing has occurred, but before publication.

  • A text file without the publisher’s typesetting, formatting, pagination and logos
  • An embargo may apply
  • Publishers' policies adhered to
  • Link to published version provided
  • 80% of journals allow this 

Gold Open Access

  • Publisher makes article freely available on publication
  • Author pays an APC article processing charge
  • Some journals are wholly open access
  • Others are ‘hybrid’  - traditional subscription journals with optional OA article processing charge for individual articles
  • APCs for open access is often an eligible cost in a grant application
  • APCs - a flat charge, varies from journal to journal, covers the entire cost of the publication process e.g. peer-reviewing, editing, publishing, maintaining and archiving, and allows immediate access to the full text versions of the research articles

Article Processing Charges (APCs) / Open Access Publishing Charges are the fees charged by publishers to make your articles available on publication for free on their platforms. This is called Gold Open Access. 

NOTE:

  • When raising a requisition in Agresso in relation to Article Processing Charges (APCs) or charges associated with Open Access publishing, please use the Product Code SERVE146 and GL Code 3078:

Reason for the Product Code

  • By tracking spending on open access publishing we aim to prevent double-charging of universities by publishers. This happens when authors pay Article Processing Charges (APCs) / Open Access Publishing Charges alongside their libraries’ subscriptions to the same journals.  
  • Knowledge of the University’s spend on open access publishing will help us negotiate better deals for both publishing charges and subscriptions
  • The new Product Code will help remove any confusion over how to log these charges in Agresso
  • This is part of an EUA initiative and is being rolled out across all Irish universities

What are National Deals for APCs?

National Deals for APCs shift the payments away from subscription-based reading towards open access publishing. Sometimes such agreements are also called "Read and Publish". One advantage is that our authors do not have to pay an Open Access fee which typically is 2-3,000 Euros because the publication fees form part of the overall agreement with the publisher.

Who negotiates National Deals for APCs?

These agreements are negotiated by the IReL consortium (based in Maynooth University) with the help of a cross-institutional Steering Group.

Why are they important for the Library?

National Deals for APCs are part of a bigger shift in publishing towards Open Access. These agreements might replace the subscription-based models we know from the past. Part of the workflow of these agreements is that the Library needs to approve requests from University of Galway authors.

The Library is negotiating National Deals for APCs with publishers that enable our University of Galway authors to publish Gold Open Access without payments. You can view a list of all journal titles, across all publishers we have deals with here: eligible journal titles.

For further information contact Fiona Quinlan at fiona.quinlan@universityofgalway.ie

Plan S, an initiative of cOALition S, was launched in September 2018 with the goal of achieving full and immediate Open Access to publications. Members of cOAlition S include the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)  UKRI, Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. After extensive consultations, Plan S came into effect in 2021.

For more information read the blogpost about "SFI's updated Open Access Policy - The Why and How" 

See also the following article by Peter Suber

Suber, Peter. (2021).Rights retention and open access. The European Research Council Magazine (28 October).

Check which publishing options are supported by your funder's Open Access policy using the Journal Checker Tool