Advance Online Publication |
Articles published online as soon as they have been fully copy-edited and proof-checked, ahead of the final, ‘printed’ version. Embargo periods start from this date. Also known as Early or First online publication. |
Article Processing Charge (APC) |
Fee paid to the publisher to publish an article via the gold open access route. The term Book Processing Charge (BPC) applies where an equivalent charge is made to publish a book / monograph open access. |
Bibliographic Record |
The bibliographic description of a digital publication often used by search engines to find documents. High-quality metadata ensures documents are easily discoverable. Also known as Publication record or Metadata. |
Bronze Open Access |
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Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) |
Agreement signed by authors upon their work being accepted that usually transfers copyright from the author to the publisher. This will often outline the author's rights concerning re-using and re-distributing the publication. For authors seeking to negotiate or amend the terms of a CTA, the SPARC Author Addendum can provide an alternative framework. Please also note that some research funders (The Wellcome Trust from 1st January 2021 and UKRI from 1st April 2022) require that authors utilise a standard Rights Retention Statement in place of signing a Copyright Transfer Agreement. |
Corresponding Authors |
The author contact for the publisher, responsible for manuscript correction, correspondence, handling of revisions and re-submission of the revised manuscript and co-ordinating the payment of the Article Processing Charge (APC) where applicable. |
Creative Commons Licenses |
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Diamond Open Access (or Platinum Open Access) |
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DOI - Digital Object Identifier |
A unique identifier for an online document, used by most online journal publishers. As the DOI is unique to the publication, linking to an online document by its DOI provides more stable linking than simply referring to it by its URL. See "Persistent IDs". |
Embargo Period |
a period during which access to an archived research publication in a repository is restricted, typically to protect the revenue of publishers who rely on subscription payments to cover the costs of publication. |
Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC) |
A life sciences and biomedical research subject repository. The Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council (MRC) and most other UK biomedical funders require copies of funded articles to be deposited in Europe PMC within 6 months of publication. The USA-based PubMed Central is the repository containing global content. |
Gold Open Access |
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Green Open Access |
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Institutional Repository |
Online digital archive of an institution’s research publications. Coventry University's Institutional Repository is Pure. |
Open Access (OA) |
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Plan S |
A new Open Access policy initiative due to come into effect from 1st January 2021. The terms of Plan S will apply to authors in receipt of funding from a Plan S affiliate, who include major UK research funders UKRI on behalf of UK Research Councils and the Wellcome Trust. Funders will maintain their own Open Access policies and may implement their Plan S aligned policy at different times, though they will be based on the common principles established by Plan S. Please see the Plan S tab of this LibGuide for further details. |
Platinum Open Access |
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Postprint (or Author's Accepted Manuscript / AAM) |
The final draft author manuscript, as accepted for publication, after peer review changes are incorporated but before copy-editing and proof correction. The postprint version should be deposited in Pure in order to meet the REF and funder requirements, if the final published version will be restricted to subscribers. |
Predatory Publisher |
This is a contested term, but publishers accused of predatory practices typically charge Article Processing Charges (APCs) and in return fail to provide the necessary quality checks expected of reputable publishers. Such publishers may misrepresent who sits on their editorial board, the journal impact factor and lack a rigorous peer review process. To avoid inadvertently submitting to a predatory journal we would advocate following the principles outlined by Think Check Submit to help identify if a journal is reputable. Please see our guide to Predatory Publishers. |
Preprint (or Author's Submitted Manuscript) |
The author's final draft of a paper before peer-review. Many publishers allow authors to place the preprint in a repository, including preprint servers; however, the deposit of a preprint version does not normally satisfy funder and research assessment requirements. The post-print / accepted manuscript usually needs to be deposited to meet the minimum requirements |
Preprint Server |
A purpose built repository developed to host and make available pre-peer reviewed versions of research articles. Preprint servers tend to be subject / discipline specific in terms of the content they host. For a listing of Preprint servers, see the Open Science Foundation directory. |
Published PDF (Version of Record) |
The final formatted PDF file that appears in the journal. This version will be the publisher's copy-edited PDF with final page numbers, typesetting and journal branding included. Most publishers will not allow you to self-archive this version unless you have paid an APC to make the paper openly available immediately. |
Publisher Agreement |
See Copyright Transfer Agreement |
Publisher Proof |
The version after acceptance but before the Final Version of Record has been produced. Typically the Proof version cannot be hosted through Pure due to publisher copyright considerations. |
Pure (see also Institutional Repository) |
Coventry University's Institutional Repository. The public facing Portal can be accessed here and outputs can be deposited here. |
A research assessment exercise which is designed to assess the quality of research in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The exercise takes place approximately every 6 years. The Open Access policy for the REF exercise, first introduced in April 2016, remains in effect. Details are available here. |
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Rights Retention Statement |
A statement applied that allows authors to retain additional rights over the accepted manuscript (Postprint) version of their work. For more please see our guide to Rights Retention and the Plan S Rights Retention Strategy information. |
Subject Repository |
Subject specific repositories that often contain predominantly Preprint material (such as Arxiv), although some also contain accepted manuscripts or final publications. Prominent subject repositories include PubMed (for Medical and Biosciences), RePEc (for Economics) and Arxiv (used by researchers in various fields such as Physics, Computer Science and Mathematics). To ensure REF Open Access compliance always record publications in Pure even if it is recorded in a subject repository. |
Transformative Agreement (or Transitional Agreements / Read and Publish Agreements) |
An agreement where a publisher / journal commits to adjust their business model over a period of time to shift from one based around revenue from subscription access charges, to one based around open access publishing charges. At the end of a transitional period the journal(s) are to become fully open access publications. Under these agreements, researchers at Universities that are part of these agreements can both access restricted research (the Read part) and publish Gold Open Access at no additional cost (the Publish part). Please see our guide to Read and Publish Agreements. |
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) - Journals added to the DOAJ are vetted to ensure that they are fully Open Access publications and meet various other standards and criteria. This helps to exclude publishers and journals deemed to be 'predatory' (those which misrepresent themselves and fail to provide the basic functions expected of a reputable journal). Journals can be filtered based on subject discipline and many of the publications indexed also support article level searches within DOAJ. Please note that the DOAJ is not exhaustive in documenting every Open Access journal in operation, but it provides the most comprehensive listing which presently exists. | |
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) - Open Access Books (also known as Open Access Monographs) have taken longer to get off the ground than open access to journal articles. However, there are increasing factors driving open access to full length academic publications. The DOAB indexes open access books produced by a variety of different publishers which meet relevant academic and peer review standards. Please note Open Access Books are typically free to read and download in electronic form, with the option of paying for a print version. | |
Core.ac.uk - Core is an aggregated repository, pulling in content from institutional repositories around the world, with over 10,000 repositories and journals providing data. The system also supports searching by 'keywords' if there isn't a specific publication you are looking for but want to see what literature on a subject is openly accessible. | |
SciELO - SciELO indexes open access journals, predominantly from South America where there is a strong tradition of open access journals run by University libraries and not for profit publishing. Some content is in English, though there is also a large amount of Spanish and Portuguese language content as a result of SciELO's coverage. SciELO's range of services also include SciELO Open Access Books, Preprints and Data.
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OA Tools |
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Unpaywall (plugin) - Unpaywall is a Chrome / Firefox extension which indicates whether there is an open access version of a publication available. When you visit an article on a publisher's platform, the Unpaywall icon which will display on the right hand side of your browser will turn green if it detects access is covered by a subscription or if there is an open access version available somewhere. Clicking the icon will then link to the available version it has found. You can also turn on 'OA Nerd Mode' which will display whether the available version is 'Gold', 'Green', or 'Bronze' Open Access. | |
Open Access Button - Open Access Button works by the title, weblink or citation of an article being entered into its search function. It will then scour online repository systems to see if there is an open access version available somewhere and link you through to it. If an article is not available open access a request can be initiated of the author through the website. Open Access Button also offers a browser extension option for Chrome and Firefox.
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OA Platforms |
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PubMed Central - A free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature overseen by the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine. Predominantly indexes fully Open Access articles, but also includes deposition of some accepted manuscripts where the final publication is behind a subscription access paywall. PubMed Central is associated with PubMed, a major database of citations and abstracts for biomedical and life sciences literature. | |
Pre-Print Servers - In some academic disciplines it is commonplace for 'pre print' versions to be hosted on subject repositories. ArXiv is one of the biggest and most long standing of these platforms, hosting pre-prints from Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science and associated disciplines. BioRxiv hosts pre-prints from the Biosciences, and several other subject repositories are hosted via the Open Science Foundation, among them PsyArXiv which hosts Psychology pre-prints and PaleorXiv for Paleontology. Do be mindful that content found on repositories such as these won't generally have been through a formal peer review process, and that some pre-print systems apply more stringent criteria as to the content they host than others. |
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EThOS - A service operated by the British Library, EThOS is the go to place to check for Doctoral level theses produced within UK Universities. Many theses are electronically available to download from EThOS (a free to set up EThOS account will be required), older theses can have a digitisation request made on them through the EThOS system. Please note that some Universities cover the costs associated with having a digitisation produced, others pass on the cost to the individual making the request. Many Universities will also host electronic theses on their own repository systems. Content not indexed by EThOS, such as Masters Research theses, may be available here. A useful place to search for institutional repository systems is the ROAR registry. |
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Science Octopus - The development of the Octopus platform has been financially supported by Research England with the platform intending to help bring about a change in research culture. Octopus breaks scientific research into eight elements which can be sequentially linked together within the platform. By breaking research up into component parts the intention is that it will be easier for researchers to publicly highlight research which is in progress and to elicit collaboration with other researchers. | |
ScienceOpen - A platform for discovering, promoting and developing research. ScienceOpen allows researchers to search and discover relevant research in over 87 million Open Access articles and article records. Authors can also publish preprints, where they can track usage, citations and impact. These articles can then be subject to open public review, allowing authors to develop their work and researchers to be credited for sharing their expertise. |
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Open Lab Notebooks - An initiative for scientific researchers to share their research in more or less 'real time' by providing online access to their online notebooks. Research groups based in Canada, the UK and USA are all currently active on the platform. | |
Research Equals - A new platform which provides a similar function to the Octopus platform. The main differences are that Research Equals allows researchers to link any steps in the research process together (Octopus follows a sequential order) and allows for a wider variety of 'steps' with a focus on research provenance. Research Equals operates on a 'pay to close' model, meaning that if researchers wish to restrict access to any components a charge is payable. | |
Funder Specific Open Research Platforms - The range of research funders who have set up their own Open Research platforms to disseminate research which they have funded has grown significantly in recent years. Below are some examples of such platforms; they will typically make available pre-peer reviewed material which then goes through an open peer review process on the Research Platform. |
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Open Science Training |
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FOSTER Open Science Project - The FOSTER Open Science Project, funded by the EU to support their Horizon 2020 initiative, comprises a wealth of training resources aimed at a range of different stakeholders in the research ecosystem. Free modular online courses are available on a range of different Open Science / Open Research topics. | |
Open Science Research Handbook - An outcome of the FOSTER Open Science Project, the Open Science Research Handbook was devised in 2018 as an 'open, living handbook'. The work provides chapters introducing different aspects of Open Research practice. As it is designed to be a living and evolving document, readers can suggest changes and improvements to the Handbook. | |
The Turing Way - The Turing Way is a community driven project to develop open-source guidance in relation to producing reproducible scientific data. The project relies on community contributions, similar to the collaborative principles behind Wikipedia. The Project was initiated by the Alan Turing Institute, which is supported by a range of leading UK Research Universities and the EPSRC. A handbook produced through the Project is available through the Zenodo repository. | |
Open Science Course - TU Delft - The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands has published this online MOOC which is currently available to access in an archived form. The course is primarily aimed at researchers wishing to know more about the core tenets of Open Research practice and features four modules which cover such topics as Research Data Management and compliance with the FAIR principles, Open Access to research outputs and Research Visibility. Participation on the course is free, though there are also paid options. | |
EU-Citizen.Science Initiative - Citizen Science, the practice of involving public participation in the scientific research process, has been growing in scope and popularity. The EU Citizen Science platform, supported by the EU's Horizon 2020 programme, contains a range of resources to training materials related to Citizen Science and aims to promote best practice in this area. There are various online MOOC courses available, covering topics ranging from research 'storytelling', to research ethics. The platform also aims to raise awareness of Citizen Science and acts as a central hub for promoting events taking place throughout Europe. | |
ORION Open Science Factsheets - Brief, informative, and easy-to understand one-page factsheets on Open Science topics. | |
LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries) - LIBER has produced a visualisation of what they see as core Open Science Skills, incorporating the five components: Scholarly Publishing, FAIR Data, Research Integrity, Citizen Science and Metrics and Rewards. The diagram, licensed under a CC BY licence, is available from Zenodo. | |
RIOT Science Club - Originating from King's College, London, the RIOT Science Club runs events aimed at increasing awareness of Open Research practices. There is a YouTube channel dedicated to making available recordings of their past events. The aim of the group is to 'create a levelling space where junior and senior academics alike can all mutually benefit from the exchange of ideas that move us away from the publish or perish culture, that stymie the replication crises, and that put researchers on the map in the Open Research revolution!'
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Open Science Groups |
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Open Science Framework - The Open Science Framework (OSF) is overseen by the Center for Open Science, a non-profit organisation which has become a leading body in the Open Research movement. The platform offers a number of functions:
The work of the Open Science Framework first came to widespread attention in 2015 following the publication of a project exploring reproducibility in Psychological Science research. The OSF also provides a searchable indexing service for Preprint servers across a diverse range of academic disciplines. |
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UK Reproducibility Network - The UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) is a peer-led consortium which promotes research reproducibility in the UK and which aims to make sure that the UK remains a centre for world-leading research. On the Network's YouTube channel are archived recordings of past seminars on a range of topics relevant to Open Research. The Network also advertise their upcoming events through their website. | |
ReproducibiliTea - ReproducibiliTea is a community building initiative designed in particular to bring together Post-Graduate Researchers or Early Career Researchers in local University networks. The initiative started at the University of Oxford, and is supported by the UK Reproducibility Network. |
What is OA?; OA Policies; APC Funding; Pure Repository; Rights Retention.
Creating and Preserving Data; Data Planning; DMPs; FAIR Data; Finding Data.
About Coventry Open Press; Contact Us; Submitting Proposals; Current Publications.
Publishing Advice; Predatory Publishers; Theses; Metrics; Persistent IDs.