Open Access publishing: fully Open Access and hybrid journals
Answer
There are several different ways to publish or share research Open Access (OA):
When publishing research you may encounter journals with different publishing models. Some journals are fully OA, and some operate a hybrid OA model.
Fully Open Access journals
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Publish all content OA immediately on publication.
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You do not need a subscription to the journal to access any of the content within the publication.
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You may need to pay a mandatory Article Processing Charge (APC) to publish in a fully OA journal.
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You can find a comprehensive index of fully OA journals via the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
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The Library may be able to support payment of an APC for authors publishing in fully OA journals.
Hybrid journals
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Publish a mix of OA and subscription-access (or paywalled) content.
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Usually there is no compulsory charge to publish in a hybrid journal, though there are exceptions.
Hybrid journals provide authors with two options:
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To publish articles non-OA (with no fee), or
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To publish articles OA through payment of an Article Processing Charge (APC) or via an Open Access agreement.
Non-OA articles will be published behind a paywall, and won’t be accessible to readers without institutional or paid access. Whilst authors are always able to choose where to publish their research, it may not be possible for Manchester authors to publish papers Gold OA in a hybrid journal. Please see our Hybrid position statement for further information about this.