Open Access

Green Road
It is the practice of self-archiving an authorized version – usually the pre-print or the post-print version - of one’s work in an open trusted repository, after publishing the final version in a closed journal.

The post-print version can be not available for a period of time – called embargo – due to the publisher’s policies.

The repository in which the data is deposited must guarantee Open Access and have several reliability requirements, such as ensuring long-term preservation. The repository can be disciplinary or institutional: Zenodo, for instance, is a multidisciplinary repository managed by CERN, while Bocconi University, like other university institutions, provides its own repository of research products, called IRIS.

Gold Road
It prescribes publishing in fully Open Access journals and may require a fee, called Article Processing Charge (APC) to be paid by the author (but it can be covered by the institution with whom the author is affiliated). Open Access journals allow everyone access to the content of research works, thus promoting the principles established by the Open Access movement. An important tool to search for Open Access journals is the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

Diamond/Platinum Road
It leads to publishing in fully Open Access journals without any payment of Article Processing Charges: the cost of publication is carried out by the institution or funding organizations.

Hybrid Road

It refers to publishing Open Access in subscription journals and involves paying on one hand the Article Processing Charge, on the other the subscription to the journal. This phenomenon has been called double dipping and it has been strongly criticized.

To counter this phenomenon and move towards Open Access, so-called transformative agreements have been developed, which are multi-year contracts between institutions and publishers in which the institutions cover the costs of Article Processing Charges.