Chapter 1: Open Scholarship Publishing Models
IN THIS LESSON
Open Scholarship publishing models - a diverse spectrum.
Publishing ultimately is about sharing information. However, there are many ways you can go about it. The following are some of the most important Open Scholarship publishing models.
Open Access: Is a publishing and distribution model that makes scholarly research freely available to the public without requiring a subscription or paywall. This means anyone with internet access can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full text of these articles.
External Reading: Open Society Foundations: Open Access Explainer
Gold Open Access - Is a publishing model where the final published version of a research article is immediately and freely available (typically under a Creative Commons licence, allowing for wider reuse). To offset the cost of publication, authors or their funding institutions pay an article processing charge (APC).
Diamond Open Access - Is a publishing model where neither authors nor readers pay any fees. There are no article processing charges (APCs) for authors and no subscription fees for readers, removing the financial barriers to research dissemination.
External reading: Coalition S Diamond Open Access Resource Page.
Publish Review Curate (PRC) - Is a publishing model that supports the rapid dissemination of research while maintaining quality standards. Publish is where researchers share their work as a preprint on a preprint server, making it immediately accessible to the public. Review is where the preprint undergoes formal peer review, with the reviews often being made public. Curate is where journals or other organisations curate reviewed preprints and provide additional value, such as editorial assessments or certifications. External reading: eLife’s New Model: Changing the way you share your research and Designing for Emergent Workflow Cultures: eLife, PRC, and Kotahi.
Scholar-Led Publishing - Is a publishing model where academics and researchers take a direct role in the publishing process. This can involve various levels of involvement, from editing and peer review to innovating with new publishing workflows and introducing new technologies. It is primarily driven by the academic community with a focus on collaboration and shared values among scholars. External reading: Open *By* Whom? On the Meaning of ‘Scholar-Led’
Preprint - A preprint is a complete version of a scholarly manuscript that has been openly shared but not yet undergone formal peer review. Preprints allow for faster dissemination of research findings and encourage feedback and collaboration from the wider scholarly community. External reading: ASAPBio Preprint FAQ.
Reviewed Preprint - A reviewed preprint (also called a refereed preprint) is a preprint that has undergone a formal peer review process where experts in the field have assessed the research, providing feedback on its methodology, findings, and conclusions. They offer more credibility than a non-reviewed preprint and enable improvements based on the reviewer's feedback. External reading: eLife’s new model: What is a Reviewed Preprint and
Review Commons - Refereed Preprints.
Preprint Curation - Preprint curation is the process of selecting, organising, and presenting preprints in a way that is helpful and informative – from creating lists of preprints based on topic or discipline, to providing expert evaluations and recommendations on the quality and significance of the research. External reading: Sciety: What is public preprint curation?
Preprint Evaluation - Preprint evaluation refers to the process of assessing and discussing preprints in an open and transparent manner. It can take a number of forms and often involves peer review, feedback, annotation, and commentary that happens in public. External reading:Sciety: What is public preprint evaluation?