Open Access publishing routes

Open Access literature is digital, online, free of charge, and often free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. The terms for onward sharing and reuse of Open Access content will depend on the licence. You can use two routes to make your scientific work openly accessible.

Gold Open Access or pay-to-publish

This makes the final published version of your article immediately, freely and permanently accessible on the publisher’s platform. You generally have to pay Article Processing Charges (APC), but can retain copyright. Go for more information on copyright to the Copyright Information Point. There are two types of Gold Open Access journals:

• Full Open Access journals: publication through publisher's platforms in full Open Access journals upon payment of the APC. For a limited number of these journals WUR has made arrangements to publish Open Access at no or reduced costs.
• Hybrid journals: subscription journals in which some of the articles are Open Access. This status typically requires the payment of an APC to the publisher. WUR has made Open Access agreements with publishers for many of these journals.

Green Open Access or self-archiving

If your peer-reviewed article has originally been published behind a paywall, you can self-archive a version of your article in Research@WUR and make it accessible to everyone after an embargo period. The copyright of these publications remains with the publisher, which often restricts reuse. You can self-archive your publication in the following three ways:

• Through the Taverne Amendment you can share the final published version of your peer-reviewed article if you meet certain conditions. Please, note that short scientific works by WU (co-)authors will be shared open access by default, six months after the first publication online or in print. As a WU (co-)author you have the option to opt out.
• If the Taverne Amendment is not an option, you can self-archive the peer reviewed and accepted version, the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in Research@WUR after the embargo period set by the publisher. See the explanation to the Quickstarter for the exact workflow.
• If your work has been funded by Plan S funders, such as NWO or Horizon Europe, you are allowed to open a version of your manuscript by using the Rights Retention Strategy. Conditions apply, please check this FAQ and find out more about this strategy and how to use it.