The Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing defines what open access means and supports this approach. It stipulates that for a work to be considered open access, it must be freely available to use without charge, and users must have the rights "to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution."
There are two primary models commonly recognized in open access publishing: gold and green open access.
This model makes the final published version of an article freely and permanently accessible to everyone immediately upon publication. Authors retain copyright, and most permission barriers are removed. Gold OA articles can appear in fully open access journals or in hybrid journals that offer both OA and subscription content.
Also called self-archiving, this involves authors depositing a version of their manuscript in a public repository to provide free access. The allowed version for repository deposit depends on the publisher or funding body. Unlike gold OA, copyright is usually held by the publisher or affiliated society, resulting in restrictions on how the work can be reused.
As open access increasingly benefits authors and the wider community by promoting high-quality, peer-reviewed content, all research articles published in Trends Academics journals are fully gold open access. These articles are released under a Creative Commons license. The Open Policy Finder (Formerly Sherpa Services) lists Trends Academics self-archiving policies. Trends Academics is committed to supporting the scientific community by providing free access to scientific knowledge and advancing open science.
All open access publication costs are covered by authors' institutions or research funders through payment of an Article Processing Charge (APC).
We are pleased to announce that all new journals will grant APC waivers for the first three calendar years. Full APC waivers are also available to authors from Least Developed Countries (as listed on https://unctad.org/topic/least-developed-countries/list). Additionally, full or partial waivers may be granted to authors facing financial hardship.
