Article processing charge (APC) - A fee that publishers charge authors in order to publish their work open access. Also called author processing charge, or article processing fee.
Accepted manuscript (AM) - The final version of an article that has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by a journal. Also known as an author-accepted manuscript, final accepted manuscript, or author's accepted manuscript.
Bronze open access - work that is freely available to read on a publisher's website, but access is usually temporary and could close at any time.
Creative Commons (CC) - Licenses that allow creators to share their copyrighted work so that it can legally be copied, edited, remixed, and expanded upon while still allowing the original creator to keep the copyright of the original work. Go to Creative Commons to learn more.
Date of acceptance - The date a scholarly work is formally deemed by a publisher to be ready to be processed for publication and no substantial changes are needed.
Deposit - The act of putting a scholarly work into a repository.
Diamond/Platinum open access - Articles that are freely available because the journal has external sponsorship, so neither authors nor users have to pay for access.
Embargo - A designated timeframe following the publication of a scholarly work, during which access to the work is restricted. During this time, users may need to pay or have institutional access to view the content. This period allows publishers or authors to control initial access before broader availability.
Fee waiver - A discount or waiver of the cost to make a work open access, which reduces or eliminates an article publishing charge.
Gold open access - Articles that are freely available through a publisher's journal immediately upon publication, usually because an author or funder paid an APC.
Green open access - A scholarly work available through a publisher's journal with pay-to-access, but that allows the author to make the material freely available on the author's website or author-affiliated open access repository, usually after an embargo period. Also sometimes known as the repository route.
Hybrid open access - When a journal publishes specific scholarly works as open access after authors pay a fee, while other works remain behind a paywall.
Institutional repository (IR) - A digital platform for organizing, storing, and disseminating digital copies of research created by a society, university, or other organization.
Metadata - Data that describes other data by offering information and attributions about the content being described. Definition from the National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
"Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource."
Open access (OA) - Publications (in the broadest sense including articles, books, videos, data sets and more) that are freely available for all people to read, use, copy, and distribute with limited restrictions on copyright and licensing.
Open access license - Granted by a publisher or other authority, enabling a scholarly work to be freely available online after its publication.
Open access mandate - A binding or non-binding policy adopted at an institution, government agency, or company that requires or suggests that affiliated members of the organization to publish their research open access through various means such as self-archiving or publishing in green or gold open access journals.
Paywall - A virtual "wall" that blocks a user's ability to freely access certain material. Libraries and academic or research institutions typically pay this fee through a subscription-based model, so affiliated users can access materials behind paywalls. Through pay-per-use, individuals can also pay to access specific content independently, regardless of affiliation or without using a library (don't do that - contact the library!).
Pre-prints - A draft of a scholarly work that has yet to go through the peer-review process but might have been submitted to a journal. If the work has been submitted to a journal, it is also referred to as the submitted version or submitted copy.
Post-prints - The final draft of a scholarly work after it has been peer-reviewed but before it has gone through copy-editing. This version of a work does not contain the publisher's typesetting, branding, or other enhancements. It is also referred to as the final accepted manuscript or personal copy.
Publisher's version - The version of a scholarly work that went through peer review and copy-editing and is formatted for publishing in a print or online journal.
Read and Publish Agreement - Also known as a transformative agreement, is an agreement where the institution pays the publisher for access to its journals and in return, the publisher allows researchers from the institution to publish open access articles in those journals for free, or at a discount.
Self-archiving - When an author deposits an open access copy of their scholarly work online, typically on a personal homepage or institutional repository.
Subject repository - An archive that collects and stores scholarly research on a particular topic. An institution, government agency, or other organization, company, or individual might manage the repository.
Version of record - The final published version of a scholarly work, which undergoes copy editing and formatting before being published in a print or electronic journal. This version includes the publisher’s typesetting, branding, and other enhancements.