Open Access Publishing
Open access (OA) refers to free, unrestricted online access to research outputs.
Choosing to publish using an Open Access publishing model is now commonplace and is a reputational win.
Globally, open access publishing agreements are gaining traction as a way for the research community, academic libraries and scholarly publishers to work together to find a financially viable path to transition to an open access publishing future.
This aligns with the Open Access for Research Outputs Policy, the International cOAlition and Plan S, and OA publishing movements.
For further information see the CQUniversity Open Access Policy Compliance Flowchart.
Open Access Publishing Models
There are different models for open access (OA) publishing
Green Open Access is also called the 'author self-archiving' model.
This means researchers submit to a journal as usual but then self-archive their author's accepted manuscript in an Institutional Repository like aCQUIRe
This means you can meet OA funder requirements for free.
For instruction on how to upload your AAM for publication to CQUniversity’s institutional repository please see the section below on “Depositing Author Accepted Manuscripts into Research Elements”.
Gold & Hybrid open access provide free immediate access to the final version of your article, but you will have to pay an article processing charge associated with publishing your article.
- Gold open access journals provide all articles within the journal via open access.
- Hybrid open access journals only provide some articles via open access and the rest of the journal is hidden behind a journal subscription.
For both hybrid and gold open access articles authors usually retain copyright and the publisher will normally agree to license the work under a Creative Commons license.
Diamond Open Access (also known as Platinum Open Access) is a model in which the open access publication of articles in online platforms is free of charge, both for the author and for the readers.
Journals are often funded by non-profit organizations and multilingual/multicultural scholarly communities, with platforms hosted by universities or by national or regional infrastructure.
Copyright and Your Author Rights
It is important that you are aware of publishing agreements associated with open access journals, and which will best suit your current and future dissemination needs.
When you decide to publish via open access you will have to decide which Creative Commons license you will use for your article. Some publishers will only allow you to choose from a select range of these and others will allow you to choose from any of them. Regardless of which license you choose all Creative Commons licenses require anyone using your research output to acknowledge you as the original author of the work. For further information on Creative Commons licenses see the “Open Access and Creative Commons” page.
Most open access publication agreements allow you to deposit a copy of your AAM into an institutional repository. Some will however have an embargo period for this. You will need to check your publishing license to know if you have any restrictions in place for your article. If you are unsure, you can also check Open Policy Finder. This is a website that provides summaries of self-archiving permissions and conditions of rights given to authors on a journal-by-journal basis.
As the author and creator of a work, you are entitled to negotiate your rights with a publisher. CQUniversity’s Open Access for Research Outputs Policy includes the following statement that you can use with publishers to maintain your right to publish the AAM within aCQUIRe.
“The Author has the right to publicly archive their revised, peer-reviewed personal version of their paper on their institutional website and their personal website, provided in all cases a link to the journal article on the Publisher website is included. For the purposes of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission”.
How to Reduce the Cost of Publishing via Open Access
There are currently three options available to you to reduce, or eliminate, the cost of publishing your article in an open access journal.
CQUniversity has signed "Read and Publish" Agreements with a number of publishers. Full details about these are available from the Read and Publish page.
The open access journal scheme is available to assist you in paying your Article Processing Changes (up to AUD $3000), if you can meet the eligibility criteria. Further information on this scheme can be found on StaffNet.
Deposit your Author's Accepted Manuscript in Research Elements to add your Author’s Accepted Manuscript to aCQUIRe you just need to simply add the AAM file via the File Upload option and select the "Proof of commercial publisher" as the file type.
Click Done when completed.
For step by step instructions on how to do this please visit the Research Performance page on Staffnet (this will require a staff or affiliate log in). The AAM will be added to the aCQUIRe record for the publication, as long as it is allowed by the publisher.
Frequently Asked Questions
An author accepted manuscript (AAM) is the final author-created version of the manuscript, which includes any changes made after peer-review and has been accepted for publication by the journal, but before the publisher's final copyediting, type setting, and formatting.
You should have retained a copy of your AAM as part of the publishing process. However, if you do not have a copy of your AAM, you can request a copy from the publisher using the following suggested wording:
“Could you please provide me with a copy of the revised, peer-reviewed personal version of the paper (the Author’s Accepted Manuscript, or post-print, version).”
Information on how to find open access publications are available from the Open Access and Creative Commons page.
Visit the Find Specialised Information page.
