Essentially, there are two main ways of ensuring Open Access to scientific publications. They may be defined as follows:
- The “Gold Road”: researchers publish directly in an Open Access scientific journal, as an OA book or book chapter. Articles, books and chapters are openly, freely and immediately accessible in the internet. Publication costs, which are known as “processing charges”, are usually paid by the author, their institution or another funding partner.
- The “Green Road””: researchers self-archive their scientific articles, contributions or books in an institutional or disciplinary repository, usually after an embargo period.
Please note that the “hybrid” approach is an alternative form of OA where researchers publish in a subscription journal but pay an additional APC to release their publication for Open Access. Access to the scientific results is paid for twice (known as “double dipping”) in this system. For this reason, the SNSF does not offer grants for publications in the hybrid mode.
The SNSF prioritises Gold Open Access because it is the only standard which ensures immediate access, it favours new and sustainable publication models and underlines the many advantages of Open Access.
Roads to Open Access – Journal Articles
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