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Copyright: Open Access & Publishing

This guide provides information on copyright infromation, and the reuse of third party materials.

Open Access

What is Open Access?

Open Access is the provision of freely available, unrestricted access to online research outputs. Open Access materials generally include peer reviewed journal articles, conference papers, scholarly monographs and research data. If research has been made available as Open Access it means that the author, or copyright holder, has given consent for it to be freely accessed to anyone with an internet connection. There are two routes to open access publishing - the green route and the gold route.

Routes to Open Access

There are two routes to Open Access publication, Gold and Green.

 

Green

  • research is published in a subscription based journal
  • journal permits deposit of full text, final peer-reviewed version into repository
  • there may be some embargo which must be less than 6-12 months to comply with funding agency requirements

Gold - hybrid

  • research is published in a subscription based journal which has an OA element
  • full text is made available via the publisher's site immediately
  • full text may be deposited, there may be an embargo on making it freely available through the repository
  • APCs may be charged and typically vary from £400 to £3500

Gold - Open Access

  • research is published in a journal which is fully open access
  • full text is made available via the publisher's site immediately
  • full text may be deposited, there may be an embargo on making it freely available through the repository
  • APCs may be charged and typically vary from £400 to £3500

University of Suffolk policy

University of Suffolk encourages the adoption of the Green route as long as it is permitted by the preferred publisher, and any embargo is compliant with the RCUK or any other relevant funding agencies. Where funds are required for APCs these should be built into any research funding bid if the publisher allows it.

What if OA is not offered by my preferred journal?

Where the publisher does not offer OA, and where there is no alternative you should still deposit a record in OARS, and try to maintain the rights of your work through the negotiation of a publication agreement. 

 

OA routes

Further information

For further information about Open Access and the University of Suffolk repository, have a look at our OA Guide.