Research Metrics

Green open access--or, self-archiving--refers to placing a version of your article into an institutional repository (like SURFACE at SU) or other open access repositories. There are often restrictions on when and in what form your work can be deposited in a green OA repository. To find out if/what version of your article you can share, please consult Sherpa Romeo or your publisher. Remember that articles published years ago can be made open access in this way. Again, be sure to check for any restrictions set by your publisher.

Common restrictions on authors seeking to add their work to a repository include:

• Embargo periods which dictate when you can make a version of your article available. For example, a journal may stipulate that you can deposit a version of your article six months after publication of the version of record.
  • Authors can submit to SURFACE at any time and specify an embargo period in the submission process.
• Which Creative Commons License you can/must apply to the green OA articles. Some journals or funders will mandate a specific license be applied to the green OA version.
  • Different CC licenses dictate how your work can be reused, repurposed, or remixed
• Which version of the article can be shared
  • Submitted version/preprint
  • Accepted version/postprint
  • Published version/version of record
• The type of repository you can use
  • Some publishers allow for green OA versions only in institutional repositories (like SURFACE) or other non-commercial repositories. Others also allow for deposit in commercial, for-profit repositories like Academia.edu and Researchgate.

Contact Open Scholarship Librarian, Dylan Mohr, with any questions.

Gold Open Access scholarship refers to when the final, published version of an article is made open access upon publication. Unlike Green or Diamond open access, however, this form of open access often requires the authors to pay article processing charges (often called APCs). These charges can be hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Authors at institutions with "read and publish" agreements with publishers can have APCs covered by these agreements. For a full list of such agreements available for SU-affiliated scholars, please click here.

The published versions of gold open access articles can almost always be deposited in repositories like SURFACE. There are many reasons to deposit these works. First, SURFACE's Google and Google Scholar search integration means that more people are likely to find your work through the repository than they would through a journal's website. Second, authors are able to track usage through SURFACE and get large snapshots of where their work is being read (and by whom).

Diamond Open Access (sometimes called non-APC-funded Gold OA) means that scholarship is made open access for readers and does not come with an APC levied against the author or institution.

Rather than being funded by subscription fees or APCs, Diamond OA projects and journals are often funded by an array of sources such as libraries and library publishing platforms, grants or endowments, or other means.