“An approach to the scientific process that focuses on spreading knowledge as soon as it is available using digital and collaborative technology. Expert groups, publications, news, and events.” This is the official definition for Open Science by the European Commission.

Open Science has been identified as the standardized method for research and innovation EU funding programs and a policy priority.

Without a doubt, open science facilitates research integrity and the reproducibility of scientific results. It is not only about leaving free access to the research articles but also openly publishing research datasets, methods, software, processes, and so on. But let’s focus on publishing in open access. There are three ways to publish open access: Gold, Green, and Diamond.

Gold Open Access is a publication in open access scientific journals. Here we have several management modalities.

The first option is that the authors publish free of charge on the Internet, and publishers assume the costs of editing and the peer review process (peer review).

Another option is that journals provide free access to their files or through the deposit in specific databases after an embargo period (e.g., 6 to 12 months). It is also possible for the author to pay the publisher for publishing his/her articles for peer review, a fee that is called Article Processing Charge (APC); note that this is a cost that can be usually included as an expense in research projects.

There are even hybrid models where open access articles coexist with closed articles accessible by subscription or payment of the publisher’s fee.

And to end with the Gold Access category, we have the mega journal, an open-access peer-reviewed scientific journal created to be much larger than a traditional journal, which aims to publish a large number of articles.

Ready for the next post? We’ll talk about Green Access and the fascinating world of repositories 🙂 holy molly 🙂