LibGuides: Open Access Publishing: Routes to Open 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 ...

Peter Suber has been a leading advocate for open access since 2001 and has worked full time on issues of open access since 2003. Read his Open Access Overview which he says is "...an introduction to open access (OA) for those who are new to the concept. I hope it's short enough to read, long enough to be useful, and organized to let you skip around and dive into detail only where you want detail. Open Access by Peter Suber, ISBN: 9780262517638, Publication Date: 2012-07-20
"The complicated business of publishing academic research" is an article by John Cox, University Librarian at the University of Galway in which he explains why " it's time to change the current system which generates big profits for publishers and denies free public access to research findings". Read more on RTÉ Brainstorm at https://www.rte.ie/eile/brainstorm/2018/0418/955452-the-complicated-business-of-publishing-academic-research/
"How open science creates better research" is an article by John Cox, University Librarian at the University of Galway and Dr. Elaine Toomey, School of Psychology, University of Galway which explains why "Science can only progress by building on the research of others and open science aims to make this work accessible to all". Read more on RTÉ Brainstorm at https://www.rte.ie/eile/brainstorm/2018/1021/1005713-how-open-science-creates-better-research/
See also the National Principles for Open Access Policy Statement Ireland

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

Deals with publishers

The Library is negotiating transformative deals with publishers that enable our University of Galway authors to publish Gold Open Access without payments. You can find information about our transformative agreements with publishers here: Open Access agreements with publishers. You can see a list of all journal titles, across all publishers we have open access agreements with here: eligible journal titles

For more information please contact:

Fiona Quinlan, (Collections Librarian, Open Access and Projects), Email: fiona.quinlan@universityofgalway.ie

What are transformative agreements?

Transformative agreements 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 transformative agreements?

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

Why are they important for the Library?

Transformative agreements 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.

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

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Routes to Open Publishing

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