4 ms·

If anyone is confused like I was: "Gold open access": publish paper in a publicly accessible academic journal. "Green open access": self-publish. For instance

by neilk 9y ago

If anyone is confused like I was: "Gold open access": publish paper in a publicly accessible academic journal. "Green open access": self-publish. For instance, throw it on a website, and allow it to be indexed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access

CamperBob2 9y ago
That was confusing, thanks. I thought "Gold" meant "Put up a paywall and charge lots of money," "Green" meant "Put up a paywall and charge moderate amounts of money," and "Black" meant "Hoist the Jolly Roger and don't charge anything at all."
- pjc50 9y ago
  Gold means the author pays the cost of publishing, potentially several thousand dollars. Green means "arxiv": the author uploads a "preprint" version to a website. The "official" version is in a conventional reader-pays journal. "Black" does indeed mean sci-hub piracy.
dankohn1 9y ago
Thank you. It was an embarrassingly badly written article, not to even define the basic terms.
- oaeide 9y ago
  The author is allowed to expect a certain domain knowledge. For example, an article about an advanced physics topic is not expected to explain Newton's laws.
  - dankohn1 9y ago
    Agreed. I should have been more clear on my criticism. If the author had the goal of convincing people beyond their existing audience then explaining their terms would have helped significantly.
    - Fomite 9y ago
      They weren't trying to convince people beyond their existing audience. They're talking to the academic publishing audience, for whom these terms are quite standard. Because when it comes down to it, "Hacker News thinks this is swell" doesn't actually matter.
mathgenius 9y ago
""" In gold open access, you write a paper and pay a big company lots of money to give it away for free. For some reason this isn't catching on. In green open access, you publish your paper with a big company. They charge people to read it – but you make another version available for free. This has not caught on except in math and physics. In diamond open access, you publish your paper with a journal that's free for you and free for the people who read it. This has also not caught on, because most "prestigious" journals – the ones you need to publish in to get a job – are run by companies who don't do stuff for free. In black open access, people illegally download millions of papers and books from big companies and make them available to everyone for free. This is working great. """ - John Baez post on google-plus.
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  It's a great post. https://plus.google.com/+johncbaez999/posts/Wto5MmfCP9o https://plus.google.com/+johncbaez999/posts/Wto5MmfCP9o
Vinnl 9y ago
There's even more distinctions: is there an embargo or not, is it gratis or libre, pay-to-publish or not, and is the full journal open? Here's an overview: https://medium.com/flockademic/how-open-can-open-access-be-cf6662565ecd https://medium.com/flockademic/how-open-can-open-access-be-c...

by neilk 9y ago

CamperBob2 9y ago

That was confusing, thanks. I thought "Gold" meant "Put up a paywall and charge lots of money," "Green" meant "Put up a paywall and charge moderate amounts of money," and "Black" meant "Hoist the Jolly Roger and don't charge anything at all."

pjc50 9y ago
Gold means the author pays the cost of publishing, potentially several thousand dollars. Green means "arxiv": the author uploads a "preprint" version to a website. The "official" version is in a conventional reader-pays journal. "Black" does indeed mean sci-hub piracy.

dankohn1 9y ago

Thank you. It was an embarrassingly badly written article, not to even define the basic terms.

oaeide 9y ago
The author is allowed to expect a certain domain knowledge. For example, an article about an advanced physics topic is not expected to explain Newton's laws.
- dankohn1 9y ago
  Agreed. I should have been more clear on my criticism. If the author had the goal of convincing people beyond their existing audience then explaining their terms would have helped significantly.
  - Fomite 9y ago
    They weren't trying to convince people beyond their existing audience. They're talking to the academic publishing audience, for whom these terms are quite standard. Because when it comes down to it, "Hacker News thinks this is swell" doesn't actually matter.

mathgenius 9y ago

""" In gold open access, you write a paper and pay a big company lots of money to give it away for free. For some reason this isn't catching on. In green open access, you publish your paper with a big company. They charge people to read it – but you make another version available for free. This has not caught on except in math and physics. In diamond open access, you publish your paper with a journal that's free for you and free for the people who read it. This has also not caught on, because most "prestigious" journals – the ones you need to publish in to get a job – are run by companies who don't do stuff for free. In black open access, people illegally download millions of papers and books from big companies and make them available to everyone for free. This is working great. """ - John Baez post on google-plus.

dredmorbius 9y ago
It's a great post. https://plus.google.com/+johncbaez999/posts/Wto5MmfCP9o https://plus.google.com/+johncbaez999/posts/Wto5MmfCP9o

Vinnl 9y ago

There's even more distinctions: is there an embargo or not, is it gratis or libre, pay-to-publish or not, and is the full journal open? Here's an overview: https://medium.com/flockademic/how-open-can-open-access-be-cf6662565ecd https://medium.com/flockademic/how-open-can-open-access-be-c...