Gold Open Access

Gold Open Access
source
Name	Gold Open Access
Caption	Open access emblem
Introduced	2000s
Discipline	Scholarly publishing
Country	International

Gold Open Access Gold Open Access is a model of scholarly publishing that makes peer-reviewed articles immediately and freely available online upon publication, often accompanied by reuse rights under licenses such as Creative Commons. Advocates and stakeholders including publishers, funders, libraries, and researchers engage in debates over business models, quality assurance, and policy implementation across institutions and national systems.

Definition and Principles

Gold Open Access is defined by immediate public availability and permissive licensing at the publisher's website, distinct from delayed or repository-mediated access. Key principles are transparency of costs, peer review integrity, and reuse permissions under frameworks like Creative Commons Attribution and funding mandates from bodies such as the Wellcome Trust, European Research Council, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It intersects with initiatives and declarations including the Budapest Open Access Initiative, the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, and policies shaped by institutions such as the National Institutes of Health, the UK Research and Innovation, the European Commission, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Historical Development

The emergence of Gold Open Access traces to early electronic journals and mandates in the late 1990s and 2000s, paralleling efforts by publishers like Public Library of Science and societies such as the American Chemical Society experimenting with hybrid models. Influential events include the Budapest Open Access Initiative, the founding of PLOS and BioMed Central, and policy shifts at organizations like the Wellcome Trust and the European Research Council. National movements in nations such as Germany with the Projekt DEAL negotiations, Netherlands transformative agreements, and policies in Finland and Sweden shaped publisher contracts and repository practices. Milestones include the introduction of article processing charges by commercial groups like Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley-Blackwell and the responses from funders including Research Councils UK and the National Science Foundation.

Business Models and Funding Mechanisms

Gold Open Access is sustained through multiple funding mechanisms: article processing charges (APCs) paid by authors or funders, institutional agreements negotiated by consortia such as Jisc and DEAL, subscribe-to-open arrangements tested by publishers like Annual Reviews, and community-funded models managed by universities such as Harvard University Press experiments or library cooperatives like the Open Library of Humanities. Funders including Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, European Commission, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute often allocate grant funds for APCs and set compliance conditions. Commercial publishers like Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley-Blackwell employ hybrid and transformative agreements, while nonprofit publishers such as University of California Press and societies including the American Chemical Society explore fee waivers and discount policies for researchers from countries represented by World Bank income classifications and regional bodies like SciELO.

Types of Gold Open Access Journals

Gold Open Access encompasses pure open-access journals, hybrid journals offering optional open access in subscription titles, and megajournals exemplified by PLOS ONE and Scientific Reports. Pure OA publishers include BioMed Central, eLife, and Frontiers, while society publishers such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science have experimented with hybrid models in flagship journals like Science Advances. Regional platforms such as SciELO and Redalyc support Gold OA in Latin America, and platforms like Hindawi and MDPI represent commercial pure-OA portfolios. University-led venues including those affiliated with Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press also maintain Gold OA titles.

Impact on Scholarly Communication and Metrics

Gold Open Access affects dissemination, citation, and altmetrics by increasing accessibility across global networks involving institutions like MIT, Stanford University, University of Oxford, and repositories such as PubMed Central. Studies by organizations including Clarivate and Scopus indexers, as well as analysts at Nature Publishing Group and platforms like Altmetric and CrossRef, examine citation advantage, article-level metrics, and download patterns. Funders such as the European Research Council and Wellcome Trust monitor compliance and outcomes, while national assessment exercises like Research Excellence Framework and Excellence in Research for Australia adapt to OA outputs. Gold OA also intersects with discovery infrastructures run by Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, and indexing in databases from Web of Science and Scopus.

Criticisms and Controversies

Critiques target APC-driven inequities affecting researchers at institutions such as smaller universities and those in lower-income countries represented by UNESCO classifications, predatory publishing practices associated with exploitative outlets highlighted by watchdogs like COPE and Directory of Open Access Journals, and commercial concentration with major players including Elsevier and Springer Nature. Debates involve national negotiations like Projekt DEAL, legal frameworks such as U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW and European regulations influenced by the Digital Single Market Directive, and tensions between academic societies (e.g., American Chemical Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and commercial publishers over revenue models. Controversies also address quality control in megajournals like PLOS ONE and industry responses from groups such as the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers.

Policy and Institutional Adoption

Governments, funders, and institutions have adopted policies promoting Gold Open Access—from mandates by Wellcome Trust and National Institutes of Health to national strategies in France via Couperin negotiations and regional consortia such as CRKN and DEIC. Universities including University of California, University of Cambridge, Harvard University, and Max Planck Society have implemented OA funds, transformative agreements, or repository policies. International organizations like UNESCO and the European Commission advocate for wider OA uptake through guidance and coordination, while library associations such as the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and groups like SPARC support infrastructure, advocacy, and policy alignment.

Category:Open access publishing