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Open Access

Green and Gold routes

Choosing the best route to Open Access – Green or Gold?

There are two main routes to open access: 

Gold route: This usually involves paying for your paper to be made Open Access immediately via the publisher 
Green route: This involves self-archiving your paper in a repository (in our case, CERES) for free

Here is a summary of the key differences:
Issue Gold route Green route
Charge?

Normally involves payment of an article processing charge (APC). Check our publisher deals page as the charge may already be covered by the Library.
If your journal isn’t covered by a deal, read the Apply for funding to pay an article processing charge (APC) section to see if we can still help you pay the APC.

No article processing charge (APC) needs to be paid.
Access? The paper is made freely available immediately via the journal's website. Access may be delayed due to embargos imposed by the journal publisher (usually 6-48 months)
Version? The final published version can be uploaded into CERES The post-refereed final draft - often known as the author accepted manuscript (AAM) version of the article can be made available in CERES. Read the Which version of my work should I make Open Access? section to learn more. 
Licence? The content can be re-used, including for commercial purposes, under a CC-BY licence, as long as the author is credited. Always use CC-BY if you can. UKRI-funded research requires a CC-BY licence, although you can apply to UKRI for an exception to use a CC-BY-ND licence.

 
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