Open Access Publishing Options

Open access refers to free access to the full content of scientific works on the internet and the management of copyright. The author retains the economic copyright and grants the publisher a licence to publish the scientific work. A scientific work published in open access (libre open access) meets the following criteria:

• the holder of the economic copyright (the author or institution) grants all users free, irrevocable, and permanent access to the work and permits reproduction, use, distribution, transmission, and public display of the work, as well as the creation and distribution of derivative works in any digital medium for any responsible purpose (such use is indicated, for example, with Creative Commons licences);
• the scientific work, in its entirety and with all supplements (including the above permissions), is immediately deposited in a repository that allows open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, data flow, and long-term preservation;
• so-called free access alone does not constitute open access. In such cases, the full text of the article is freely available online, but the content is protected by copyright terms typical of publications in subscription-based scientific journals (the author transfers economic copyright to the publisher).

Various models of open access are recognised:

• Gold Open Access (Gold OA): Publishing in open access journals and monographs is referred to as gold open access. Such journals and books provide access to the full content without subscription or purchase and use a copyright model in which the author retains economic copyright and allows reuse, typically marked by Creative Commons licences. Publication usually involves a fee (APC – Article Processing Charge, BPC – Book Processing Charge, or BCPC/CPC – Chapter Processing Charge). In some cases, publication is free of charge, which is often referred to as diamond open access.
• Diamond (ang. or Platinum) Open Access: A non-profit model of gold open access that provides immediate open access to scientific works without any publication fees – publishing is thus free of charge for authors or their institutions. Authors retain their economic copyright and allow sharing and reuse of the scientific work (typically excluding commercial use and modification). Publishers (which may include scientific societies, non-profit organisations, research institutions, libraries, funders, international initiatives, or publishing platforms) fund their operations through alternative means: sponsorships, donations, fundraising campaigns, crowdfunding, and similar.
• Gold Open Access in Hybrid Journals (Hybrid OA): Hybrid journals are subscription-based scientific journals in electronic form that offer open access publication of individual articles for a fee (APC). The author retains economic copyright and allows reuse under an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons). Other articles in the journal remain accessible only to subscribers, and their authors have transferred economic copyright to the publisher.
• Green Open Access or Self-Archiving (Green OA): Green open access refers to open or free access to scientific works published in subscription-based journals, which the author (or someone on their behalf) archives in repositories. Depending on which version of the work is archived, we distinguish:

• Archiving the final peer-reviewed version of the scientific work (AAM – Author Accepted Manuscript, also known as postprint), accepted for publication in a subscription-based journal (often referred to as Green Accepted). Access to such work is often subject to an embargo period, and further reuse is typically governed by the publisher's self-archiving policy (see Sherpa Romeo for more on publisher policies). Sherpa Romeo);
• Archiving the preprint version, a non-peer-reviewed manuscript submitted for publication. This is usually an informative publication that does not yet meet the criteria of a scientific publication.

None of the above green open access forms meet the requirements of either Slovenian funders or the European Commission, as they do not constitute open access. In these cases, authors do not retain economic copyright, and the content is not openly accessible. Open access via this route is only ensured when the work is archived in a repository under a secondary publication right without embargo, meaning that the final peer-reviewed version is deposited with an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), thus allowing reuse. Most international scientific publishers still do not support this form of green open access.

Authors also archive original, openly accessible publications (VoR – Version of Record) that have already been published via the gold route. Another common practice is that funders enter agreements with publishers to ensure archiving (e.g. PubMed Central). This method enables funders to track compliance with their open access requirements and is often referred to as Green Published.

• open access publications on funder publishing platforms: some research funders establish dedicated platforms for publishing scientific works resulting from their funding instruments. This enables researchers to meet the funders’ open access requirements. Publication on these platforms may be free of charge or based on APC payments, and immediate open access to individual articles is ensured. Authors typically retain the economic copyright to their work and allow further use, for example via a Creative Commons licence. Open access publications on funder platforms are subject to peer review. This method of publishing scientific works belongs to the broader paradigm of scholarly publishing known as Funder as Publisher. An example of such a platform is Open Research Europe, which is intended for open access publication of scientific articles arising from research conducted under the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programmes.