Guides: Scholarly Metrics Resources for Pepperdine Authors: Open Access

OA

In most cases articles that are published open access (not hidden behind paywalls) receive more citations and have a higher readership.

Types of Open Access:

Gold: Articles that are completely free on the publishers’ websites. When most people think of open access, they are thinking of gold open access. In many cases authors pay article processing charges that can range from $500 to $5,000.

Bronze: This category refers to subscription based publishers that will decide to remove paywall restrictions from specific articles if authors pay an article processing fee.

Green: This category which is also known as self-archiving provides authors with the option of uploading the full-text of published articles that are hidden behind paywalls to institutional repositories

Green (open access):

Here are some advantages of Green open access:

There are never any article processing charges for authors when they self-archive.
Nearly any journal from major publishers can be self-archived. In many disciplines, very few of the highest-ranked journals are gold open access and green open access includes the widest range of journals.

What version of my article can I self-archive to Digital Commons? You can upload the accepted (peer reviewed) version of your manuscript. Here is a basic primer on manuscript versions:

Preprint: This is the version of your article that you initially submitted to the publisher. The article has *not* gone through peer review.
Accepted (peer-reviewed): This is the version of your manuscript that was accepted for publication and incorporates all of edits and suggestions from peer reviewers. However, this version of the article doesn’t include publisher enhancements like typesetting and pagination.

This is the version of the article that you can upload to Pepperdine’s Digital Commons after the publisher’s embargo period.

Final published version (also known as the version of record):

This is the final version of the article that is published on the publisher’s website and is indexed in library databases. Publisher enhancements like typesetting, copy editing and pagination.

How long is the embargo period for self-archiving/green open access?

Embargo periods vary by publishers and can range from 0-24 months depending on the subject matters. Here are policies from the major journal publishers.

Publisher	Embargo for publishing Accepted (peer-reviewed) manuscript
Elsevier	12-36- Search for your journal with the embargo finder for exact information.
Wiley	12 months for STEM fields and 24 months.
Springer	12 months.
Taylor & Francis	Use the journal finder to find the embargo period for your journal. In most cases there is an 18 month embargo for social sciences & humanities journals and 12 months for STEM fields. Zero embargo for Library & Information Science journals.
Sage	No embargo period!
Oxford University Press	Check the directory for your journal. In most cases there is a 24 month embargo for social sciences & humanities journals and 12 months for STEM fields.
Cambridge University Press	Zero embargo for social sciences & humanities journals and 6 months for STEM fields.
Emerald	Zero embargo (can be self-archived as soon as the article appears on Emerald’s website).

You can also contact your journal’s publisher to learn about self-archiving policies.

Another option is search for your journal in the Sherpa Romeo website which aggregates green open access/self-archiving policies for several journals.

Don't forget about Pepperdine Digital Commons !

Pepperdine Libraries’ Digital Commons hosts research works from the Pepperdine community. Digital Commons can increase the readership of your articles and provide metrics. Most importantly, you can take advantage of green open access to upload the full-text of your accepted manuscripts after the embargo periods of journal publishers.

There is a detailed guide to adding articles to Digital Commons.