Glossary of Open Research terms

Click on a term to see a definition.

AAM (Author Accepted Manuscript)

The version of your paper including all changes after peer review, but not including publisher typesetting or branding (unless you were given a template to write in).

APC (Article Processing Charge)

This is the name that has been adopted specifically for Open Access charges. Refers to the charge paid to make Versions of Record openly accessible from journal webpages.

CC-BY

The Creative Commons Attribution licence, which is the licence required by funders; we can only pay individual APCs or approve articles submitted to journals in Read and Publish deals if the article will have a CC-BY licence.

Creative Commons Licence or CC Licence

A usage licence that makes clear what readers of an output can and cannot do with it – less restrictive than the statement, “All Rights Reserved”. More information can be found on the Creative Commons website.

Diamond Open Access

Diamond Open Access journals are journals that do not impose charges either on the author-side or the reader-side. In other words, authors do not need to pay an Article Processing Charge in order to be published, and readers do not need to pay an access charge or subscription to read articles.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

A unique and persistent alphanumeric string used to identify an article or document and providing it with a permanent web address (URL). More information about DOIs can be found on the University Open Research webpages.

Embargo period

A period of exclusivity, whereby the self-deposited AAM can only be made available a set period after the publication of the Version of Record.

Fully OA journal or Fully Gold journal

A journal that charges no subscriptions as all content is open access, usually (though not always) funded by APC payments.

Gold Open Access

This means the Version of Record is available open access from the publisher website. Gold open access journals often require payment of an APC (Article Processing Charge).

Green Open Access

This means the AAM is the version that is available on an open access basis, from an institutional or subject repository.

Hybrid journal

A subscription access journal that will make individual articles open access on payment of an APC.

Metadata

Data that gives information about other data. For example, the description, keywords and DOI all provide information about your work which makes it more findable. Find out more about metadata in this video.

ORCiD

A unique researcher identifier which can be added to your outputs to ensure you work is easily distinguished from that of other researchers. More information about ORCiD can be found on the University Open Research webpages.

 

Page charges and colour charges

Charges that have always been charged by some journals (on top of their subscription charges). No central funds are available to pay page or colour charges. Colour charges are usually waived if you are happy with the print versions being black and white.

Preprint server

A repository that specialises in making preprints available (e.g. medRxiv).

Preprint

An article that has not yet undergone peer review. It does not mean the online first publication ahead of print.

Read and Publish deal

An agreement with a publisher whereby we pay upfront for both read access to content, and for articles submitted by our staff to be open access; also called a ‘transitional deal’.

Repository

In this context, an online database of open access content. Could be institutional (e.g. our University Repository) or discipline-specific (e.g. EPMC).

Rights Retention Statement (RRS)

A Rights Retention Statement is a set of words that authors can include in an article submission to a journal that assert the author's right to make a version of their paper available on an open access basis, regardless of whether the version of record is behind a paywall. cOAlition S funders such as UKRI and WEllcome Trust have provided a set of words that can be used when submitting to a journal. These are given in the relevant sections of the Open Access policies page.

Rights Retention

The process of ensuring during submission and acceptance that authors retain the right to make their AAM available on an open access basis, usually through the use of a Rights Retention Statement.

Self-deposit or self-archiving

The act of uploading a paper, usually the AAM version, to a Repository, in order to make it available on a Green Open Access basis.

Transformative journal

A hybrid journal that has committed to year on year increases in its proportion of open access content, with the aim of transitioning to fully open access once a certain percentage of content is open access. Note that different funders have different definitions of Transformative Journals, and so will or will not have different criteria for what we can pay for from their open access funding:

  • If you are funded by one of the UKRI Research Councils, you can use the Jisc-approved list of transformative journals to see if the journal to which you want to submit meets their transformative journal definition. Note that part of this definition allows immediate open access of the author accepted manuscript via deposit in Elements - where open access fees are excessive, we will encourage the use of this free option instead.
  • If you are Wellcome, British Heart Foundation, or Cancer Research UK funded, you can use the Plan S list of transformative journals to see if the journal to which you want to submit meets their transformative journal definition.
  • The NIHR does not have a position on transformative journals. If you are NIHR funded you shuold use your NIHR Open Access Envelope to arrange any open access payments yourself. Se the NIHR web page for guidance.

 

Version of Record

The final version of your paper, after being peer-reviewed and processed by a publisher, including publisher typesetting and branding.