Article processing charge (APC) – Fee paid to journals to publish an article as open access. More info
Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) - Accepted version which has been peer reviewed but not typeset or copy-edited. Same as postprint. Is usually a Word document. More info
Closed Deposit - means ‘only the abstract of the article is discoverable to anyone with an internet connection on a non-commercial institutional or non-commercial subject repository, and the full text is not available to read or download during the Embargo Period’
Copyright – A legal right created by the law of a country that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights for its use and distribution. More info
Copyright transfer agreement – A legal document containing provisions for the conveyance of full or partial copyright from the rights owner to another party. More info
Creative Commons License - is one of several public open access licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work, subject to adhering to certain terms as specified in the license. See https://creativecommons.org for specific license choices and further explanation.
Deposit – The action of uploading a digital copy of a work into a digital repository. More info
Embargo – Restriction of access to the content of a copy of a work for a defined period of time. Embargoes of the full text vary and can typically be 6, 12, 24 or 36 months or longer.
Gold open access – The publisher version of a publication is immediately and permanently freely available for anyone with internet access to read or download from the publisher site at the point of publication. More info
Green open access – A type of open access where a version of a publication is freely available via an institutional or subject repository, or other web-accessible digital archive, that is compliant with the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). More info
Hybrid Journal - A subscription journal in which some articles are open access. Generally, authors are provided the option to pay an APC to make their article open upon first publication.
Institutional repository – A repository affiliated with a specific institution, most commonly universities. More info
Mandate, Funder or Institutional – A policy requiring publication of research in an open access format.
Paywall - This describes internet content that is only accessible by paid subscribers. For example, academic libraries subscribe to content that is only available to their students, faculty and staff.
Pending Publication (PP) - A manuscript which has been accepted but has not yet been published online
Postprint - same as Author Accepted Manuscript
Preprint - early draft or manuscript that has not been peer-reviewed shared by the researcher/author in a preprint repository or dedicated channel (outside of a specific journal). More info
Subscription journals or publishing, or subscription-based journals - the publication is funded by payments that are made by subscribing individuals or institutions. Access is generally closed to the subscriber and/or those affiliated with the subscriber.
Traditional journals or publishers - this usually refers to subscription-based publications.
Version of Record (VoR) - typeset, copyedited, and published version
Definitions were compiled from various sources including CASRAI and CrossRef. See these sites for additional OA-related publishing definitions.