Definitions of key open access terms are below:
Article processing charge (APC) - a fee charged to the author for making their article available on open access at the point of publication (known as ‘gold’ open access). The amount charged will vary from publication to publication.
Author’s accepted manuscript (AAM) - describes a researcher’s raw manuscript, after peer review has taken place, but before the publisher’s formatting has been applied. Also known as a ‘post-print’.
Book processing charge (BPC) - a fee charged to the author for making their book available on open access at the point of publication (known as ‘gold’ open access). The amount charged will vary from publication to publication.
'Diamond' open access - this is an open access journal or publication where there are no charges to the author to publish. It is also known as 'platinum' open access.
Embargo period - this is a period in which an article/chapter can be deposited in a repository on closed access only, before it can be made open access. Embargo periods vary from publication to publication.
‘Green’ open access - the author deposits a copy of their research output in their University’s institutional repository (UCARO). Publishers may require journal articles or book chapters to be kept under embargo for a specific period and they often specify what version can be deposited in the repository.
‘Gold’ open access - the publisher makes the journal article, book, or book chapter freely available to the public at the point of publication, usually for a fee to the author called an Article Processing Charge (APC) or Book Processing Charge (BPC).
ISSN - International Standard Serial Number. This is a number used to uniquely identify a serial publication, such as an academic journal.
Predatory publisher - a publisher that exploits authors by charging publication fees for ‘gold’ open access, without providing the editorial and publishing services that authors expect from legitimate journals.
‘Read and publish’ agreement - also known as a ‘transformative’ agreement. This is an agreement between a publisher and a University Library, in which payment for accessing their journals and payment for ‘gold’ open access publishing in those journals is bundled together into a single contract. There is no fee to the author.
Repository - an online, open access archive of research outputs. UCARO is the institutional repository for UCA staff outputs as well as UCA PhD theses. Academic networking sites such as Academia.edu and Research Gate are not repositories and sharing your work on them will not count towards the REF open access requirements and might not be permitted by your publisher.
Research Excellence Framework (REF) - the current system for assessing research in UK higher education institutions that is carried out every six or seven years. The last REF was completed in 2021.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) - the UK’s largest public funder of research, which brings together the seven disciplinary research councils, Research England, and Innovate UK.
Version of record (VoR) - the final version of an article that has been published in print and/or online. This version includes any editorial improvements such as copy editing or typesetting, made after the peer review process is complete.
