What are the ‘green’ and ‘gold’ Open Access models?

There are two open access routes: Green open access involving the author of material ‘self-archiving’ published material in a subject or institutional repository, and Gold open access where work is published in open access journals.

Both open access models provide great benefits to those who publish such as increased visibility, impact, and citations.

Open access journals are also a great resource for anyone looking for instant free access to information. You can find a list of open access journals on the Directory of Open Access Journals.

What is Green Open Access?

Green open access refers to depositing or ‘self-archiving’ a copy of your work in a digital repository.

Green open access is particularly important now if you want to be eligible for submission to the REF, and to comply with Edinburgh Napier University Open Access Policy you are required to deposit any final peer-reviewed work in our repository. For more information on this or to deposit your work go to our research repository page.

Free access is provided to the repository version either immediately after deposit or after an agreed embargo period, which can be checked using Sherpa Romeo.

What is Gold Open Access?

Gold open access is another way of publishing that provides full open access to your work. To do this you publish your work in an open access journal, which then makes it freely available to readers.

Sometime an article processing charge (APC) will be charged by the journal, prior to publication of your work. If you do choose to publish using the Gold access route, and the journal charges an APC, check whether the library has an open access agreement with the publisher. If not, you need to allow for the cost of paying the fee as Edinburgh Napier favours the green route for provision of open access.

The UK research councils (UKRI) are committed to open access, as is Edinburgh Napier University. For further information on this take a look at the UKRI open access policy.