Making something Open Access (freely available with no costs for the reader or the author) via the Green route means to publish in a subscription journal, but making the AAM (Author Accepted Manuscript) available for free in an institutional or subject specific repository. This is called self-archiving. The AAM is the last version of the manuscript (after peer review) that has been accepted for publication, but has not had journal formatting. Some journals only allow the pre-print (the version before peer review) to be archived by the authors, whereas other journals will allow archiving of the published document itself (also called a post-print).
The catch with Green Open Access is that there may be a delay in making it freely available (often referred to as an “embargo”). The delay of access is decided by the journal, and can be 3, 6, 9, 12 or even 24 months. However, sometimes there may be no embargo at all!
Do you have the TIME for Green Open Access?
