Open access key terms

Article Processing Charge (APC) or Book Processing Charge (BPC)

A fee charged by a publisher for making an article or book immediately open access on the publisher’s website.

Author accepted manuscript (AAM)

Also known as postprint, final author version, accepted version or author’s final copy (AFC).

The version of an article or chapter that has been accepted for publication. It includes changes made following peer review, but has not been copy-edited or formatted by the publisher.

Corresponding author

Author with responsibility for communicating with the publisher during the submission, peer review and publishing process. Affiliation of this author determines eligibility for publisher open access agreements.

Digital object identifier (DOI)

A digital object identifier (DOI) is a unique code that identifies a digital object in an actionable and persistent way. This means it allows click to access, and the DOI remains the same even if the location or nature of the object changes.

Diamond open access

The publication is made immediately open access on the publisher’s website with a licence allowing reuse. No fee is charged to the author. Diamond open access is a subset of Gold open access.

Embargo period

Period of time in which there are more restrictions on sharing a research publication. For example, a publisher may forbid sharing the Author Accepted Manuscript version online for 12 months after first online publication, or a PGR may restrict access to their thesis for 6 months after deposit into a thesis repository.

Fully open access journal

A journal which is wholly published on an open access basis. As opposed to a 'hybrid' journal, where some of its content is paywalled. 

Gold open access

Green open access

The publication is behind a paywall on the publisher’s website, but the Author Accepted Manuscript version is shared via a repository.

Hybrid journal

A subscription/paywalled journal where some material is made open access

Open access mandate

Policy or set of requirements from an organisation or funder to stipulate that articles acknowledging its funding should be open access.

Open access platform

A digital publishing platform such as F1000Research or Wellcome Open Research which allows open access publication outside of the traditional journal model.

Open licensing

Open licences allow others to make use of a copyrighted work as long as they follow the conditions of the licence.

The suite of Creative Commons open licences are commonly used in academic publishing, the most permissive being CC BY, which allows others to ‘distribute, remix, tweak and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation’.

ORCiD

ORCiD provides researchers with a persistent and unique identifier which distinguishes them from other researchers and makes sure their work is identifiable.

You can add your ORCiD to myPublications which will enable the system to find your work from across the web.

Page and colour charges

Some subscription-based journals charge authors to publish with them without making the article open access. Instead, they charge per page, or to cover the cost of colour printing. 

These extra charges can be called ‘page charges’, ‘colour charges’ or ‘publication charges'.

Repository

Institutional repositories (IRs) archive and make accessible digital research outputs produced by one or more institutions. 

The IR for the University of Sheffield is White Rose Research Online (WRRO). It is operated through the White Rose Consortium with the Universities of Leeds and York.

WRRO contains a variety of materials such as peer-reviewed articles, preprints, technical reports and conference presentations. 

There is also a repository for theses (WREO) and one for research data (ORDA).

Rights retention statement

A rights retention statement (RRS) on a submitted manuscript should allow authors to retain rights over their work and share the Author Accepted Manuscript via a repository without following conditions set by the publisher.

Transitional agreements

Transitional agreements (also referred to as transformative agreements or ‘read and publish’ deals) are contracts negotiated between institutions or consortia and publishers in order to move towards a business model which means payment is made to publish in, rather than to read scholarly journals.

In the UK, JISC negotiates transitional agreements on our behalf. There are slight differences between agreements, but they generally mean that corresponding authors from an affiliated institution are eligible to make their articles open access at no cost to themselves.

UKRI open access block grant

Funds provided by UK Research and Innovation (AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, STFC, Innovate UK and Research England) to institutions to financially support compliance with the UKRI open access policy. University of Sheffield's UKRI open access block grant is used to pay for individual APCs in fully open access journals and platforms, contributions towards transitional agreements, infrastructure and staffing costs. The grant is administered by the University Library.

We also receive block grants from the Wellcome Trust and British Heart Foundation.