4. Green Open Access


What is the Green route (Green OA)?

The Green route is the publication model used when there is no publishing agreement with a hybrid journal, or when a subscription journal offers no Open Access publication option at all. Publishing in Open Access in this type of journal implies paying both for the publication and for access to the rest of the journal. This is called "double dipping" and is not tolerated by the institution.

This type of publication consists, according to the publisher's criteria, of sharing the final version of one's manuscript (peer-reviewed, but before typesetting by the journal) in an open repository such as your institutional repository IRIS or a discipline-based repository. This is also referred to as self-archiving.

The final accepted version of an article is called either the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) or the post-print.

The Open Policy Finder website lists the conditions set by a large number of journals for sharing this manuscript.

Since the final version of your article will be published in a closed format on the publisher's website, Green route publication cannot be considered genuine Open Access. The content of your article will certainly be accessible via repositories, but copyright generally remains with the journal's publisher under standard copyright. This type of publication therefore does not comply with current Open Access policies (author rights retention, CC-BY licence).

How can I follow the Green route (Green OA) at UNIL?

If the journal of your choice is not covered by a Read and Publish agreement and it is a subscription journal (with or without an Open Access option), you should opt for the Green route. To do this, you will need to share your article as a PDF in IRIS, our institutional repository.

Once your PDF has been uploaded to the reference for your article on IRIS, you will need to indicate the licence, any applicable embargo, and the other constraints imposed by the publisher via a dialogue box (edit icon).

Does self-archiving (Green OA) violate copyright?

No, provided you comply with the conditions imposed on your Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) by the publisher (embargo, licence for the manuscript, etc.), you are not infringing copyright.

The Open Policy Finder lists a large number of journals and details the sharing conditions for each version of the article. Mir@bel is a similar service for French-language publishers and journals.

What is an embargo period?

An embargo period is a period required by a journal's publisher during which the accepted version of an article may be deposited in an institutional repository but cannot yet be made publicly accessible.

The principle is that the journal wants to ensure that the article is primarily read through the journal itself, and therefore via individual or institutional subscription.

The publisher authorises the release of the Author Accepted Manuscript in the institutional repository after a defined period running from the date of publication: 6, 12, or 18 months after that date. Some journals allow immediate access from the date of publication and therefore do not apply an embargo to those publications.

NB: The SNSF tolerates Green route publication only for articles that have no embargo.

What is IRIS?

IRIS is our research information system and serves as the institutional repository for UNIL publications.

The referencing and deposit of a version of scientific publications produced as part of research at UNIL is mandatory for the entire UNIL research community.

Since IRIS is harvested by major search engines, it is a very useful tool for increasing the visibility of the institution's scientific output and its researchers.

It has a dual purpose: