Most scholarly information enters Open Access through one of two methods:
1) Open Access Gold: publication in an open access journal, also known as Open Access Gold. Examples of Gold OA include PLOS (Public Library of Science) and BioMed Central.
2) Open Access Green: deposit article (aka "self-archiving") in an institutional repository, author's website, or other archival location. UNM's institutional repository is the Digital Repository.
Here's a visual to explain the difference:
The above graphic is created by Darren Chase at the Stony Brook University Library and licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.
Gold open access means that a publication is immediately provided in open access mode through a high-quality open access publication channel, that is, an open access journal. In this case, the publisher is responsible for providing the article in open access mode immediately. The publisher may charge an open access fee (article processing charge).
Hybrid open access refers to a combination of subscription-based and free-of-charge publishing. This means that the author pays a fee (APC) determined by the publisher to make the article freely available. Otherwise the journal is only available to readers who have paid the subscription fee. Some hybrid journals allow for Green Open Access publishing in a researcher's institutional repository or on their own webpage. Sites like Sherpa Romeo can help researchers identify the Open Access policies of thousands of journals.
Diamond / Platinum OA Journals refer to open access journals that don't charge any author fees (APC - Article Processing Charges). They are usually financed by a university or research organization.
Articles from open access journals are "born digital" documents. Usually no print copy is produced, even for archival purposes. Some OA journals utilize electronic archival programs like LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) to help ensure that articles are accessible even in the event of a publisher server failure.
LOCKSS works by allowing institutions that subscribe to a journal (usually libraries) to archive a copy on a specially configured server. Under a traditional for-profit publishing model enforced by license agreements that transfer intellectual property rights to the publisher, negotiating permission to use LOCKSS can be a challenge. However, open access publishers - especially those that use Creative Commons - are in an ideal position to take advantage of LOCKSS.
