Glossary

A
APC (article processing charges)

Charges for publishing immediately in open access which may be billed to the author (or his or her institution). See Open access publications.

Article

1 : preprint or author’s version
The version of an article sent to a journal by the authors prior to the peer review process.

2 : Accepted author manuscript
The version of an article including revisions resulting from the peer review process but without the publisher’s final layout.

3 : version of record
The version of an article with the editor’s final layout as published in the journal.

B
Bronze route

A bronze journal article is one that is available on its publisher’s website but does not have an explicit open license and therefore cannot be deemed fully open access.

D
Data Management Plan (DMP)

An ongoing plan written at the start of a research project which sets out how the data will be managed covering its collection, documentation, and storage, as well as managing sensitive data, conditions for opening or sharing data, etc.

Data warehouse

These may be multidisciplinary or thematic in one disciplinary field. In them, datasets are deposited, documented, and disseminated. A warehouse provides better archiving and wider access to data than a laboratory server or other local solutions.

Diamond model

The diamond model refers to a plurality of open access scientific publishing business models that do not involve authors, their institutions or their funders paying publication fees (APCs for articles).

Distribution license

The license defines the conditions for distribution and reuse of any scientific content (example: Creative Commons).

E
Embargo

Period during which a scientific production cannot be disseminated in open access. In the case of state-funded scientific publications, the French Law for a Digital Republic limits the embargo period after which the written work can be openly disseminated regardless of contracts with publishers (see the French law for a Figital Republic). Authors of theses may define an embargo period during which the thesis is only available within the academic community.

F
FAIR (principles)

The aim of the FAIR principles is to make data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.

Freemium model

The freemium subscription model is an economic model, which key feature is the coexistence of free options, where functionality is stripped down, and paid access for a more advanced offer or additional services.

French Law for a Digital Republic

This 2016 law provides a legal framework for depositing certain versions of journal articles in open access repositories if at least half of the funding of the research in question came from the public sector.

By putting research data in the category of public data, this law creates a legal obligation for such data to be freely disseminated.

G
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The legal framework defined by the European Union for the management of personal data. It may be consulted at: https://www.cnil.fr/fr/comprendre-le-rgpd

Gold route

A journal is “gold” if all its articles are freely and immediately available on the journal’s website, regardless of how it is funded.

Green route

The green route refers to self-archiving by researchers or archiving by a third party of articles in open archives. The availability of an article may be delayed if an embargo is attached to it.

H
Hybrid journals

“Hybrid” journals are circulated by subscription while asking their authors to pay publication fees (also called APCs) so that their article can be published as open access. This payment of additional fees to subscription-only journals introduces double-dipping.

M
Metadata

Information which enables the standardised description of data or digital documents (e.g. a digital photo’s date and GPS coordinates). The quality of metadata ensures sharing and the possibility to reuse data.

O
Open access

Content in open access is accessible to all with no barriers: no authentication requirements, no resources under an embargo, no paid access, etc. This may concern scientific publications, data, code, etc.

There are several ways of disseminating open access publications. For example, self-archiving scientific productions in an open archive (sometimes called green open access) or publishing in an open access journal with or without APCs (sometimes called gold open access).

Open access publication

A journal or book that has been directly disseminated in open access. These books and journals have varied business models such as public subsidies, payments by authors’ institutions (see APCs), financial contributions from academic societies or university libraries and so forth. Find out more about the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB).

Open archive

Researchers deposit their work directly in thematic or institutional archives so that it can be consulted by all with no barriers.

P
Persistent identifier

A unique stable reference for a digital object or subject such as a dataset, article or author.For example a digital object identifier (DOI), or an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID).

Personal data

Data concerning an individual who is identified or identifiable.

Predatory publishers or journals

Publishers or journals with dubious peer reviewing or business practices.

R
Reproducibility

The capacity of another researcher to obtain the same results using the same methods and data. This highlights the importance of the methods used to produce such results.

Research data

Factual records (numerical scores, textual records, images and sounds) used as primary sources for scientific research, and that are commonly accepted in the scientific community as necessary to validate research findings.

S
Source code

A set of statements or instructions comprising a computer programme in a programming language. Source code are generally presented in the form of a set of text files that can be read by a user and are executable by a machine. Source code is the representation of a software programme that enables the user to make modifications.

Subscribe-to-open (S2O)

S2O allows publishers to convert journals from subscriptions to OA, one year at a time. Using S2O, a publisher offers a journal’s current subscribers continued access. If all current subscribers participate in the S2O offer (simply by not opting out) the publisher opens the content covered by that year’s subscription. If participation is not sufficient—for example, if some subscribers delay renewing in the expectation that they can gain access without participating—then that year’s content remains gated.

T
Transformative agreement

The transformative agreements explicitly seek to organize the transition from the journal subscription model to that of open access, by reallocating library budgets.

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