What is Open Access?
"Open access refers to works that are created with no expectation of direct monetary return and made available at no cost to the reader on the public Internet for purposes of education and research" (Association of Research Libraries, 2004).
For more information see the Salisbury University Library Guide on Open Access.
Types of Open Access Publishing
Diamond (or sponsored) OA (sometimes called Platinum): Making the content of a journal openly available on the publisher's website without any subscription fees or article processing charges. Publishing costs are covered by one or more sponsoring organizations. An example of a Diamond OA journal is the European Journal of Taxonomy.
Gold OA: Making the final version of a manuscript openly available on the publisher's website immediately upon publication. Publishing costs are covered either by authors who pay article processing charges, by authors' institutions or by publishers. PLOS One is an example of Gold OA.
Green OA (or self-archiving): Making a version of a manuscript openly available in an institutional repository or an open access disciplinary archive such as SOAR@SU which is part of the larger MD-SOAR project, currently funded by the USMAI Library Consortium. See the definitions of manuscript versions here.
Hybrid OA: Making individual articles, for which an open access publishing fee has been paid, openly available in a traditional subscription-based journal.
Bronze OA: This type of OA publishing refers to articles that are free to read on a publisher's website but without a specific license. Such articles may only be free for a brief period.
Gratis open access: Providing access to works that is free of charge but not free of some copyright and licensing restrictions.
Libre open access: Providing access to works that is free of charge and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Open Access Venn Diagram
CC by 4.0
Farquharson, J. I., & Wadsworth, F. B. (2018). Introducing Volcanica: The first diamond open-access journal for volcanology. Volcanica, 1(1), i-ix. https://doi.org/10.30909/vol.01.01.i-ix