Open Access: Publishing

Open Access: academic publications that are free to read and often have various re-use rights

Article Processing Charge (APC): A fee charged to the author, institution, or funder to cover the cost of an article. This fee is in lieu of charging subscriptions to read the article. 

Hybrid Journal: A type of journal in which some articles are published Open Access and others articles or not. Hybrid journals are typically longstanding journals that provide an Open Access option, and charge subscription fees.

Toll access journal: A journal that requires payment to access the scholarly content 

Gold Open Access: Journals or articles that are Open Access at the time of publication whether with or without an APC

There are a number of benefits to choosing to publish in an Open Access journal, such as:

• Open Access publications have a citation advantage and be cited more around the world
• Your research will be more discoverable to your colleagues, students, and anyone regardless if they belong to an institution that subscribes to a particular journal
• Open Access journals typically have more rapid publication cycles
• You will keep your copyright! More Open Access journals will ask for a license to publish and to publish utilizing a CC-license, but you will retain the full copyright to your work and not need to sign a copyright transfer agreement.

The University of Wyoming, as part of The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries, has made an agreement with Cambridge University Press to support Open Access publishing. UW authors can publish your articles Open Access at no cost to them. This extends to all UW faculty, students, and staff and includes all Cambridge University Press hybrid and gold journals. In order to take advantage of this agreement, the corresponding author must be from UW or another participating institution. 

If you have a questions about this policy, please email scholcom@uwyo.edu

Open Access journals do not charge subscriptions to libraries or individuals. Some Open Access journals use a funding model based on article processing charges (APCs). However, the majority of fully Open Access journals do not charge fees. You will most commonly find article processing charges when publishing in a scientific journal or a hybrid journal. 

APCs can be written into grant funding or be covered by an institution. If you wish to publish Open Access without an APC, there are many journals without APCs!