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Open Access Toolkit

Glossary

Accepted manuscript/version 

This is the author's manuscript version of a scholarly output accepted for publication following peer review and revision. An accepted manuscript or accepted version can also be called a post-print.

AOASG - Australasian Open Access Strategy Group

The AOSAG supports and advocates for OA in Australia. It works to increase awareness of OA in Australia and provides an Australian voice to interact with international OA support groups. It is supported by several member tertiary educational institutions within Australia.

Archiving/self-archiving

Depositing a digital copy of a document in an institutional repository in order to provide open access to a scholarly output.

Article Process Charge (APC)

The fee paid to a publisher to make an article free at point of access. Whilst Open Access principles promote free availability of research and scholarly output, research papers are not cost free to produce. The cost of publication is moved from the reader (via subscriptions and pay-walls) to the author (via the APC). Not all Open Access publishers charge an APC.

Author Addenda

Author addenda state the rights that the author will retain after passing an article to a publisher for publication. Addenda vary considerably, so care must be taken to choose an addendum that suits the author (or institution) in each particular case. SPARC (a US organisation) provides information on how to apply these.

Creative Commons

This is an internationally recognised licensing scheme which permits the sharing, reuse, repurpose and remix of material whilst also ensuring that creators retain the right to attribution as a minimum.

Delayed Open Access

When a scholarly output is accessible open access after an embargo period set by the publisher has elapsed. Embargos can vary from a few months to many years depending on the publisher and discipline.

Embargoes

Some publishers restrict when an author's version of an article is allowed to be displayed in full text in a repository. This typically varies from 6 months to several years after publication. Any embargo period is usually listed in the copyright agreement (or can be found on the SHERPA-RoMEO website). Sometimes the publisher's embargo period conflicts with a funder's OA mandate requirements.

Green Open Access Publishing

Refers to work that is made publicly available in a repository, institutional or subject-based, often after an embargo period.

Gold Open Access Publishing

Refers to work that is immediately available free of charge at the site of publication to any member of the public.

Hybrid Open Access Publishing

Hybrid open access refers to a publishing model in which subscription-based journals allow authors to make individual articles gold open access immediately on payment of an article publication charge. Publishers do not generally reduce subscription fees despite the inclusion of paid open access content - this is described as "double dipping".

Open Access Mandate

Is a policy adopted by a research institution, research funder, or government which requires researchers—usually university faculty or research staff and/or research grant recipients—to make their published, peer-reviewed work open access via either Green OA or Gold OA

Metadata

Data that describes other data. For items in open access repositories, this usually consists of a full bibliographic reference, abstract, keywords, and similar information.

OAI - Open Archives Initiative

Develops and promotes interoperability standards that aim to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content. OAI has its roots in the open access and institutional repository movements. www.openarchives.org

OAI-PMH

The standard protocol for harvesting metadata from OA repositories.

Open Access (OA)

Free and unrestricted online access to the outputs of publically funded research so that research literature can be used without licensing restrictions for research, teaching or other purposes.

Pre-print

This is the author's manuscript version of an academic article or other publication that is submitted to the publisher before peer review.

Post-print

This is the author's final version of an academic article or other publication - after it has been peer-reviewed and revised into its final form by the author. A post-print can also be called an accepted manuscript or an accepted version. Postprints are not the pdfs produced by the publishers, but may be a Word document or pdf produced by the author. Since additional changes may occur during the proofing process, postprints are not considered "the version of record".

Proof

This is the final version of a scholarly output. It is the version just before publication with the journal formatting applied. A proof is considered a publisher's (not an author's) version of the work.

Refereed

This means papers or articles that satisfy external or peer review requirements of the scholarly journal or conference proceedings prior to publication.

Repository

A website that aims to collect, store and proffer electronically the intellectual output of a subject or organisation without charge.

Research outputs

Sometimes called scholarly outputs, these are articles, papers, books and chapters etc. written by researchers and scholars in their discipline. They are often peer-reviewed.

Scholarly outputs

Sometimes called research outputs, these are articles, papers, books and chapters etc. written by researchers and scholars in their discipline. They are often peer-reviewed.

Self-archiving 

The act of an academic author depositing the metadata and electronic full text of their publication in an Open Access repository.

SHERPA/JULIET

A database of research funders' policies on open access. This is a collaboratively maintained service and a good starting point, however you should always refer to the agreement for your research project.

SHERPA/RoMEO

A database of publisher policies on copyright and self archiving. This is a collaboratively maintained service and a good starting point, however you should always refer to the publisher's agreement or website for current information.

UC Research Repository

This is the University of Canberra's digital institutional repository. The repository includes metadata, publications and other scholarly outputs.

Wellcome Trust

The world's largest medical research charity funding research into human and animal health www.wellcome.ac.uk

Open Access - connecting ideas and hunches (video)