What is Open Access?

The motivation behind Open Access is to offer free access for everyone to scientific publications, so that the research can reach a wider audience and benefit the research community - and society at large.

Most research publications are normally subscription-based and only researchers with access to the large research databases can reach the publications. Thus, the focus on Open Access publishing.

Open access is typically divided into four categories

Green Open Access

Green Open Access is also known as parallel publication. Here you publish your article in a traditional subscription-based journal and upload the post-print (also known as “the accepted manuscript” or “the author’s final manuscript”) in a repository such as DTU Orbit. The post-print will then be released with Open Access – typically, bot not always, after an embargo period. 
Per-print, post-print and other versions
Learn more on embargo
DTU Orbit

Golden Open Access

Golden Open Access means that you publish an article in an Open Access journal, the content of which is by definition free of charge to the reader. In some cases, publication in such journals is free, in most cases though the authors must pay an “article processing charge”, APC.

DTU researchers may get a discount on the APC if they publish with certain publishers.
Open Access discounts - APC

Hybrid Open Access

Hybrid Open Access means publishing a scientific article in a traditional subscription-based journal, but buying it out — that is, paying a fee (APC) to make it Open Access.

DTU researchers may get a discount on the APC if they publish with certain publishers.
Open Access discounts - APC

Diamond Open Access

Diamond Open Access is a non-commercial way to achieve Open Access when publishing. With Diamond Open Access, you publish a scientific article Open Access without the author being charged a fee for publishing – nor are readers charged for a subscription to the content. Instead, expenses for this publication form are covered by various grant providers.

Diamond Open Access journals are driven by initiatives within different research environments and are based on the principle that the journal is owned and managed by academia. Most often, it is smaller, multilingual, and multicultural research environments that are represented among Diamond Open Access journals. Science Europe is working to strengthen Diamond Open Access within scholarly communication. The goal is that Open Access can be implemented as a standard publishing practice across the European research areas.

DTU’s publiceringspolitik og Open Access 

DTU’s publication policy recommends green Open Access and advises against hybrid Open Access unless researchers can get a discount on the APCs – otherwise DTU will end up paying twice for the article (i.e. first for DTU’s subscription and subsequently for releasing the article with Open Access).
DTU Research Publication Policy (pdf)
Learn more on Open Access at DTU
Open Access discounts - APC

Read how you can make your research publications Open Access:
How do I achieve Open Access?