Open Access

About

Green open access is a type of open access that allows authors to self-archive their accepted manuscripts in an institutional repository or subject repository, either upon acceptance or after an embargo period.

Benefits

Green open access does not require article processing charges or open access fees. Researchers can avoid expensive fees while making their research freely available to anyone by sharing their work through green open access. Making research openly available through green open access can help increase its visibility and impact, regardless of a researcher's ability to pay an article processing charge or open access fee.

Publisher Policies

Not all publishers provide green open access options. Therefore, when selecting a journal for your research, it's essential to consider the open access options the publisher offers. Take the time to review the journal or publisher's policies on self-archiving, sharing your work, or green open access. Carefully examine author and copyright transfer agreements to ensure you choose a publisher that permits you to openly share specific versions of your work. 

If you have already submitted your article to a journal or it has already been published and you want to share it openly in UDSpace, our team will research the journal or publisher's policies. We will inform you which versions can be shared and any conditions that need to be followed, such as embargo periods.

Learn More:

University of California Libraries. (2018). Pathways to Open Access. UC Office of the President: University of California Systemwide Libraries. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5gc4r5mg

Sharing your work openly through green open access is easy at the University of Delaware. The library provides a mediated process so researchers can effortlessly deposit their recent publications in UDSpace. Here is how the deposit process works:

Step 1: Let us know about your recent research

• Contact our Open Access team and tell us about your new publications.
  • You can reach out via our UDSpace deposit form or by email.
  • You do not have to wait to contact us. As soon as an article is accepted, let us know!

Step 2: We will gather information about your research

• We will gather information about your work, find out how it can be shared, and contact you shortly.


• If the work has already been published elsewhere, the only information we need from you is:
  • Your name and UD email address - To let us keep you informed about the deposit process
  • The DOI, URL, or citation of your work - To help us gather information about your material
  • A copy of your work - Most green open access policies only allow the Accepted Manuscript (AM) version to be deposited in an institutional repository, but if your article was published under a Creative Commons license or agreement that allows sharing the publisher's version, you can send us the final published version. 


• We will ask you for additional metadata if your work has not been published elsewhere. 

Step 3: Your research is shared openly in UDSpace

• We will let you know if we can archive your work after we research the journal/publisher's archiving and green open access policies.
  • If the publisher's policies allow sharing in the IR, we will proceed with the deposit process.
  • If not, we will let you know and help you understand the publisher policies, copyright agreements, and those of any other journals you are interested in publishing.
• The deposit process on our end includes the following:
  • Collecting metadata - We collect and create metadata about your work and create an item record in UDSpace
  • Determining embargo periods—If we determine from our research that a publisher requires an embargo period, we will use UDSpace's embargo functionality to make the article's metadata viewable. However, the article's contents will not be able to be viewed or downloaded until after the embargo period ends.
  • Creating an item record and depositing the material in UDSpace - Once deposited, we will send you the URL to your openly available work in UDSpace.

Publishing agreements usually explain the different versions of your work and how and where you are allowed to use and share these versions. Many publisher policies only allow the Accepted Manuscript to be deposited in institutional repositories like UDSpace.

Common Characteristics

Here are some common characteristics of the different versions of research as it moves through the publishing process:

• Submitted version:
  • Also known as the submitted manuscript or preprint
  • The version that was initially submitted to the journal
  • It has not been through peer review, so it does not include any revisions from the review process
  • Has not been copy-edited


• Accepted version:
  • Also known as the accepted manuscript (AM), author-accepted manuscript, or post-print
  • It is peer-reviewed and includes all revisions
  • It has not been copy-edited, so it likely does not have any of the publisher’s branding or other enhancements
  • It is commonly a double-spaced PDF, Word, or LaTeX document


• Final version:
  • Also known as the version of record, published version, or publisher's version
  • Is the official version that appears in the journal
  • It is peer-reviewed and includes all revisions
  • It is copy-edited and type-set, so it likely has the publisher’s branding, fonts, and other enhancements

Versions of work during the publishing process:

"Green Open Access" from USU Open Access Support Research Guide is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Learn more:

Manuscript detectives – submitted, accepted or published?

Gold Open Access 

Would you like to share the final published version of your research instead of the Accepted Manuscript? Explore our Open Access agreements and APC discounts. You can also book a consultation to find OA journals with no APC charges or journals that allow sharing the final published version of your work in the institutional repository.