Scholarly Communication @ UTampa

Open Access: scholarly literature that is free to read and often has various re-use rights. Open Access commonly has the same standards of peer review, quality, and research impact as traditional publishing

Article Processing Charge (APC): A fee charged to the author, institution, or funder to cover the cost of an article. This fee is in lieu of charging subscriptions to read the article. 

Hybrid Journal: A type of journal in which some articles are published Open Access and others articles are not. Hybrid journals are typically longstanding journals that provide an Open Access option and charge subscription fees.

Toll access journal: A journal that requires payment to access the scholarly content 

Gold Open Access: The final version of an article is freely and permanently accessible for everyone immediately after publication. Copyright for the article is retained by the authors and most of the permission barriers are removed. Gold OA articles can be published either in fully OA journals or hybrid journal.

Green Open Access: Also referred to as self-archiving, is the practice of placing a version of an author’s manuscript into a repository, making it freely accessible for everyone.

You can participate in Open Access either by archiving your research in a repository or publishing in an Open Access journal.

Archiving in a repository - You can archive your research in UToIR or a disciplinary repository. Archiving is free and allows you to make your work freely available without changing how, where, and why you publish. The majority of publishers allow you to archive the submitted or accepted versions of your articles.

Publishing Open Access - By publishing in Open Access venues, your research will become freely available immediately and typically you'll retain your full copyright. There are over 12,000 peer-reviewed journals in the Directory of Open Access Journals.

Myth #1: Publishing Open Access is the only Open Access
You can participate in Open Access in two ways: publishing Open Access or archiving your research. 

Myth #2: You're paying to publish
Open Access journals operate on a different funding model. It is not vanity publishing. The "article processing charge" business model shifts the cost and makes the content available to everyone.

Myth #3: All Open Access journals charge fees
The majority of Open Access journals do not charge fees. 60% of journals in the Directory of Open Access Journals do not charge an article processing charge to the author. 

Myth #4: Open Access journals are low in quality
Open Access journals have the same standards of peer review, copyright, quality, prestige, and research impact.