Open Access (OA)

In practice, what makes something fully open vs closed is complicated. The How Open Is It table below, created by SPARC, gives a glimpse into that complexity. They have a guide that goes into more detail on that page as well. 

"How Open is It"by SPARC and PLOS, licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License.

Based on the information provided by SPARC above, the most "open" of open access publications have: 

• Free readership rights to all articles immediately upon publication -- this means that there is no embargo on access
• Generous reuse & remixing rights (e.g. using open licenses like a CC BY license)
• All use copyrights still belong to the author. Remember, with Creative Commons licenses, even when an author allows others permission to use their works non-commercially, they the authors always retain full rights to sell their own works. 
• All distribution copyrights still belong to the author
• Guaranteed stewardship in trusted third-party repositories immediately upon publication 
• Machine readability capabilities like article full text, metadata, citation information, and other supporting data 

There are several types of Open Access publishing models: Green, Gold, Diamond/Platinum, and Hybrid. Each model differs based on APC costs, authors' rights to reproduction and distribution, speed of accessibility (or embargo lengths), and availability of different versions of the article.

Green OA

As a researcher at Winona State University, Green OA is the most readily accessible option for you through the Library. This is because we have an institutional repository, OpenRiver. There are also numerous repositories available across the world and web depending on your discipline. Self-archiving, such as on a personal website, can also fall under Green OA, but because it can be more difficult to guarantee long-term sustainability of a personal website, not all people will consider personal websites as viable platforms for true Green OA. 

Under Green OA, you can preserve and share copies of pre-prints, post-prints, and so much more. Monographs, conference proceedings, and other forms of gray literature can be preserved through this model. 

Because the author is usually storing the versions of the work that have not been through the entire publication process through a publisher (resulting in the "version of record"), there are no APC costs. Rather, the author--in accordance with their publisher--may have a set "embargo" period. It is after the embargo, where the version of record is available through the publisher's preferred hosting platform for a period of time, that those other versions are allowed to be launched for the public in the repository. In rarer instances, one may be able to redistribute the "version of record." 

Publishing Green OA does not require applying an open license. Many authors will still apply CC licenses to their pre/post-prints. Sometimes, they can be applied to versions of record, and may even be required by individual publisher policies. When in doubt, review your publishing agreements.

Interested in repositories specific to your discipline? Search for the terms "subject repository" or "disciplinary repository" along with your field of study. 

Gold OA

With Gold OA, articles are immediately accessible to readers. Authors or sponsoring institutions pay APCs, though. The final version of record not only appears in an open access journal, but will come with come with an open license, usually a Creative Commons license. 

Diamond/Platinum OA

Diamond/Platinum OA functions essentially the same as Gold OA, but instead of the authors paying an APC, the cost of the journals are funded entirely by external funders like institutions or societies. As a result, there is no need for an APC. A goal of many of these organizations is to promote bibliodiversity. This includes foci on multilingual and multicultural scholarly communities. 

Hybrid OA

Perhaps the most contentious of the OA models, the immediacy of access, APC cost, and degree of open licensing used in Hybrid OA will vary from publication to publication. The key difference is that while the final version of record may be published open access through the publisher, it may simultaneously appear alongside closed/traditional articles in subscription journals. As a result, the publisher receives payment both through the APC, and inadvertently through subscriptions, since users and libraries will still pay for subscriptions in order access to the entire hybrid journal. Often, publishers will offer the option to upgrade an article from closed to open access by adding an APC.

What about Gratis/Libre OA? 

The models mentioned above have to do with hosting platforms/venues and the processes of publication and preservation. Conversely, the terms "gratis" and "libre" are used when referring to user rights. They are the result of a history of attempts by open access communities to define degrees of openness and closedness. Specifically, the struggle--as explained by Peter Suber on SPARC--has been to develop terms that encompass the idea that OA needs to remove 1) price barriers and 2) permission barriers. The author of the article, Peter Suber, has been a prolifically cited member of the OA movement for decades. Since the publication of his article post in 2008, the terms "gratis" and "libre" have become widely referenced.

In short, both gratis and libre OA cover instances where the price barrier is removed for the user. The user does not have to pay to read the article. The difference then is that gratis OA does not permit users the same freedoms to reuse, redistribute, or adapt the article. Libre OA permits users to do these things through open licenses. 

Of the example models above, ones that can (usually) be considered libre are Gold OA and Diamond/Platinum OA. Whether Green OA or Hybrid OA are considered gratis or libre depend on a case-by-case basis. If they allow full reuse, redistribution, and adaptation rights for the user, then they can. If they only allow one to view the article freely, then they fall under gratis.