Open access publishing

Open science and research have become an internationally significant method to promote the coverage and impact of science in the society. Open science means opening of research publications, data and methods. Open access refers to a form of online publishing in which a scientific publication is openly accessible and utilisable for everyone, without separate compensation. UEF, like many other universities and funders around the world, demands research results to be published with an open access (OA) status within the limits of agreements and laws.

Open access of publications can be achieved via different routes:

Gold open access

The articles/books are immediately published on the journal’s/publisher’s website and these publications are accessible to everyone and free of charge to all readers. In these journals, there is a reliable peer review process and, usually, they have an author/article processing charge (APC), which covers publisher’s costs. There is a book processing charge (BPC) for books.

Be sure to allocate sufficient resources for article processing charges already during the planning phase of your research. At UEF, if it is not possible to use research funding to cover the publication costs, you can ask your department if the open access fees could be paid from the unit’s basic funding. Also, see if your organisation has special APC benefits for researchers – since many organisations, like UEF, have such.

Hybrid publishing

The article is published in a subscription-based journal and this single article is opened by paying extra fees (APC). In this publishing model there are charges for both the subscription and for opening an article. This is called “double dipping”, and hopefully this OA option disappears soon.

However, many organisations have so-called transformative agreements with publishers. The transformative agreements include hybrid journals, and the aim of the agreements is to transform the hybrid journals into fully open access journals when certain criteria are met. These transformative deals usually include open access publishing in the agreement’s journals without APCs for the author. All the UEF’s transformative agreements are listed on the APC benefits from publishers page.

Green open access (green OA, self-archiving)

The articles are published in a subscription-based journal, but the publisher allows self-archiving of your article. Similarly with books, the book is published as a print version, but the publisher allows self-archiving of your book. The self-archived copy is available e.g. via organisational (e.g. UEF eRepository) or discipline-specific publication repository (e.g. arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv). You can also search in the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) and the Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR) to find more information about the repositories throughout the world. To find a discipline-specific repository, check out this OA Directory.

Self-archiving must be agreed upon between the authors and the publisher. Often the publisher can have set restrictions related to self-archiving and these restrictions must be obeyed. There might be an embargo period before you can publish your publication on the repository. Self-archiving is free of charge for authors, so it might be a good option especially if you don’t have a budget for APC fees.

Depending on the publisher, different versions of the manuscript can be self-archived.

  • Pre-print​ – Manuscript. The version of the article before peer-review.​
  • Final draft – The version that has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publishing but which does not have the final layout of the journal. The final draft is also called a post-print, pre-proof or accepted author manuscript (AAM). The version with page numbers and publisher logos is no longer a final draft version.​
  • Publisher’s PDF​ – The final published version of the article with the layout of the journal.​

Research funders and organisations may require that OA must be ensured immediately or after a certain embargo period.

To sum up, watch the video about open access publishing:

Tools for finding Open Access articles and journals

Open access articles can be searched via various services, such as publication archives and open access journal directories.

Also, read UEF Library’s blog posts about:

Sherpa Romeo

Sherpa Romeo is an online resource that presents publishers’ and journals’ open access policies from around the world. Every registered publisher or journal held in Romeo is carefully reviewed and analysed by a specialist team who provide summaries of self-archiving permissions and conditions of rights given to authors on a journal-by-journal basis where possible.

APC benefits for UEF researchers

Scientific journals usually charge an Article/Author Processing Charge (APC) from the author of an article to cover the costs of open access publishing. UEF researchers can have discount on APCs of several publishers. Read more about the APC benefits for UEF reseachers.

Plan S

Plan S is an initiative for open access publishing launched in 2018 by cOAlition S, a consortium of national research agencies and funders from 11 European countries. Plan S requires scientists and researchers who benefit from publicly funded research to publish their work in open repositories or in open access journals by 2021.

Plan S is structured around ten principles. The key principle is that from the beginning of 2021, scientific publications must be published in open access journals or platforms, or made immediately available in open access repositories without an embargo period.

Please note, related to Academy of Finland research funding:  The Academy of Finland requires that Academy-funded projects commit to ensuring immediate open access to their peer-reviewed articles in accordance with Plan S principles. If the chosen scientific journal or publishing platform does not declare that they accept immediate self-archiving, the Academy encourages the authors to propose making the article openly available immediately, as agreed in the publishing agreement. If the publisher refuses immediate self-archiving, the article can be made open access through self-archiving within an embargo (up to 12 months for social sciences and the humanities, up to 6 months for other scientific disciplines).

Read more:

Further information:

F1000Research. An Open Research publishing platform for scientists, scholars and clinicians across the physical and life sciences, engineering, medicine, social sciences and humanities offering rapid publication of articles and other research outputs (e.g. clinical trials, systematic reviews, software tools, method articles). Transparent peer review and editorial guidance on making all source data openly available. Articles are indexed in PubMed, Scopus and other bibliographic databases.

Grudniewicz, A. et al. 2019. Predatory journals: no definition, no defence. Nature 576: 210-212.

How Open Is It? A short guide to help you to check the openness of journals. SPARC & PLOS.

Jussila, J. et al. 2022. Avoimen julkaisemisen kustannuksista UEFissa | Costs of Open Access publishing in UEF. UEF Library blog.

Kananen, J. et al. 2021. UEFin julkaisutoiminta vuonna 2021 | UEF’s publishing activities in 2021. UEF Library blog.

(8/2023 KH)