Open Access colours and terms explained
The following definitions are adapted from Ghent University in their guide
Diamond Open Access: Diamond Open Access refers to a scholarly publication model in which journals and platforms do not charge fees to either authors or readers. Diamond Open Access journals represent community-driven, academic-led and -owned publishing initiatives. Serving a fine-grained variety of generally small-scale, multilingual, and multicultural scholarly communities, these journals and platforms embody the concept of bibliodiversity. Definition taken from
Gold Open Access = Open Access publishing: Open Access journals provide immediate Open Access to the articles published. There is a large variety in business models and publishing methods. You can find an overview of peer reviewed Open Access journals in the .Green
Green Open Access = self-archiving: publish in the journal of your choice, deposit a version of the publication (usually but not necessarily a post-print) in a repository and make it publically available in Open Access, sometimes after an embargo period set by the publisher. An overview of Open Access Repositories can be found on. Publishers鈥� policies on (self)archiving can be found on .
Hybrid Open Access: Some publishers allow immediate Open Access to some of their articles on condition that an 鈥楢rticle Processing Charge - APC鈥� is paid. In such journals, two types of articles coexist: those freely accessible and others only accessible through a subscription. Although being mainly responsible for the recent rise in available Open Access publications, 鈥榟ybrid Open Access鈥� doen鈥檛 take away subscription costs for those journals.
Platinum Open Access: Platinum Open Access is a model of scholarly publishing that does not charge author fees. The costs associated with scholarly publication are covered through other means, such as volunteer work, donations, subsidies, grants, etc.
Bronze Open Access: Bronze articles are made free-to-read on the publisher website, without an explicit open license.
Other Key Terms
Article Processing Charge (APC): refers to a fee charged by a journal to publish an article. Some open access journals charge APCs to publish. In hybrid journals and APC is usually charged to make an article open access.
CRKN: The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) is a Canada-wide consortia of academic libraries. The consortia licenses information resources and other products in support of education and research.聽Learn more about CRKN .
