Types of Open Access

There are several models employed across the publishing ecosystem to produce open access scholarship. Read on to learn more about each of the three major models and how UMD Libraries are providing support across the spectrum of OA publications.

Green Open Access

  • Green OA may be achieved by submitting a version of the article to a repository
  • The final, typeset version of the article does not need to be openly available. A preprint or Author Approved Manuscript (AAM) may be considered appropriate
  • Allows you to choose your publication venue without restriction
  • Some negotiation with the publisher may be necessary

Your research is published in a paywalled publication, but you are allowed to make a version of the content available somewhere else online.

How the Libraries support Green OA

  • Green OA may be achieved by submitting a version of your published work to an open repository. UMD's repository, managed by the Libraries, is called DRUM. 
  • UMD's Equitable Access Policy requires faculty to submit a version of all published articles to our repository, as permitted by their publisher. the Equitable Access Policy website provides information about how to comply with the policy including resources for negotiating with your publisher. Not a faculty member? You can also elect the Individual Equitable Access License for your work on that site. 

Gold Open Access

  • Many Gold OA journals fall into the category of HYBRID journals, where some articles are OA, and others are only available to subscribers, depending on whether the author has chosen to pay the APC
  • Gold Open Access is one of the most prevalent journal publishing models, which means that authors have a lot of choice and can publish in many high impact and established titles
  • APCs can be very expensive, which can exclude researchers who have fewer resources from 

You pay money to the publisher, usually called an Article Processing Charge (APC), to have your articles available open access.

How the Libraries support Gold OA

  • The Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund provides matching funds to cover APCs. Applications usually open during the fall semester each academic year and funds are available on a first-come basis until depleted. 
  • The Libraries have negotiated a variety of Read and Publish Agreements with publishers. In these agreements, the Libraries pay a premium over the subscription fee for the catalog of that publisher and, in return, UMD authors are able to publish OA articles at a discounted rate or with the APC waived. 
  • There are also a variety of funding opportunities for monographic publications. TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) is a national initiative to advance open-access (OA) publishing of monographs in the humanities and social sciences. 

Diamond Open Access

  • Diamond Open Access is considered to be one of the most ethical forms of open access
  • Often these are newer titles but are still producing high quality scholarship
  • Many diamond OA journals are published by independent organizations or by libraries
     

The article is free to read, and free for the author to publish.

How do the Libraries support Diamond OA?

  • DRUM, our university repository provides an option for publishing content of any variety. 
  • Memberships in organizations like Qualitative Data Repository, Dryad, and Open Science Framework. These memberships support community-owned infrastructure that permits publishing in a diversifying range of research outputs. Learn more about OSS support for Open Data publishing.
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