International Open Access Week 2024 is here! This year’s theme is “Community over Commercialization” —and from Oct. 21 to 27, the Libraries is highlighting some of the many ways you can leverage community resources and support to make your work open access (OA) for free.
Welcome to day one of International Open Access Week 2024! We’re excited to celebrate all things OA. After all, the world needs your research, and you can reach a wider audience when your work isn’t behind a paywall.
When you think about access to a journal article, you might think it’s either only available to subscribers or available to everyone (OA). But there is a third option, called Green OA or self-archiving. In Green OA, the author makes a version of the article freely available through a disciplinary or institutional repository, in addition to the published version behind the paywall.
With Green OA, the publisher holds the copyright on the published article, so they control the self-archiving options, including:
- Which version can be archived?
- Preprint (submitted version)
- Accepted manuscript (peer reviewed version)
- Published version
- Where can it be archived?
- Author’s personal website
- Institutional repository (Iowa Research Online)
- When can it be archived?
- Is there an embargo period after publication? (6, 12, 24 months?)
Most publishers also require the Green OA version to link to the published version.
If you think this sounds complicated, you’re not alone. Fortunately, the Libraries is here to help. Our librarians can help you navigate journal-specific self-archiving policies to make sure you’re archiving the right version, in the right place, at the right time. Iowa Research Online, our institutional repository, accepts pre-prints, accepted manuscripts, and other forms of posted content, like working papers. Please contact us for assistance; we’ll be happy to help.