Open access widens your reach

Making work open access (OA) removes the paywall, so far more people can read and cite it — especially where subscriptions are unaffordable. Two main routes:

  • Gold — published open in an OA journal (sometimes for a fee).
  • Green — you self-archive a permitted version (often the accepted manuscript) in a repository, free.
Worked example — green OA in practice
Your paper is behind a paywall. You deposit the accepted manuscript in an open repository (e.g. Zenodo or your institution’s repository), which gives it a DOI and makes it findable for free — perfectly legal when the publisher permits that version. Now anyone can read it.

🔗 Learn more (free): Zenodo — free open repository (operated by CERN)

Try it
Find out whether your institution has a repository. If not, note that Zenodo lets any researcher self-archive a permitted version for free.

Self-check

What is the difference between the gold and green routes to open access?

© FRELIP, released under CC BY 4.0. Adapted in part from openly-licensed UNESCO (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) and institutional research-support materials. Linked resources remain under their own licences. Curated by the FRELIP Open Courseware editorial team.

Modifié le: jeudi 4 juin 2026, 12:51