Open Access Publishing Models and Business Models
What this domain tests
The Publishing Models and Business Models domain tests your ability to classify journals and agreements by who pays, who can reuse, and how the model is sustained. You need to recognize gold, hybrid, green, bronze and diamond OA, APC and BPC economics, transformative agreements, Subscribe to Open and collective funding.
Core rules
- Gold OA: the version of record is immediately free at the journal, often funded by an article processing charge (APC), but not always.
- Hybrid OA: individual articles are made OA in an otherwise subscription journal; the journal is not fully OA.
- Green OA: a version is deposited in a repository; access may be delayed by an embargo.
- Bronze OA: free to read on the publisher site without a clear reuse license.
- Diamond/platinum OA: no fee to readers or authors; usually funded by institutions, societies or subsidies.
- Transformative agreements (read-and-publish or publish-and-read) combine subscription access with publishing rights; they are transitional instruments, not permanent OA guarantees.
- APC does not equal quality; DOAJ indexing and transparent pricing are better signals.
Worked example
A university library signs a three-year read-and-publish deal. An author at that university publishes in a hybrid journal under the deal and the article appears CC BY. Reasoning: the article is gold/hybrid OA because it is immediately free in a hybrid journal, funded through the agreement rather than an individual APC. It is not diamond OA because the library pays, and it is not green because the version of record is OA.
Traps
Assuming gold always means APC; calling a hybrid journal fully OA; treating bronze as reusable; and forgetting that transformative agreements have eligibility rules, caps and end dates.