Table 1.

Different open access publishing models55

Gold open access 56

The so‐called ‘gold open access’ was the initial form of OA, whereby the author(s) or authors institution pay an APC to the OA journal at the time of manuscript acceptance. Therefore, these fees are (ostensibly) used to cover the peer review and publication costs, while no revenues are generated by subscriptions. The publishing practices are similar to those used by subscription‐based publishers, although the peer review and publishing processes can be shorter (with no decline in quality)

Green open access 6, 56

In the ‘green open access’ model, authors who publish in a subscription journal are allowed to make a manuscript version of their article freely available on their website or an institutional repository site. Most journals already offer this model, as some research funders like the National Institutes of Health often insist on this option

Hybrid model 24

In this model, traditional, subscription‐based journals offer authors the possibility to make their articles openly accessible in the journal's electronic archive upon payment of an APC. Therefore, a subscription‐based journal may offer members without subscriptions free access to articles. This model was supposed to represent an intermediate solution between subscription‐based and open access journals

APC, article processing charge; OA, open access.