What is an embargo period?

An embargo period is a period required by a journal's publisher during which accessthe toaccepted academicversion articlesof an article may be deposited in an institutional repository but cannot yet be made publicly accessible.

The principle is notthat allowedthe tojournal users who have not paid for access (or have access through their institution). The purpose of this iswants to ensure publishersthat havethe revenuearticle tois supportprimarily theirread activities.through the journal itself, and therefore via individual or institutional subscription.

Therefore,The inpublisher Green Open Access, an embargo period refers toauthorises the period of time in which the allowed versionrelease of the manuscriptAuthor mustAccepted remain closedManuscript in the institutional repository after publication.a Oncedefined period running from the embargodate periodof expires,publication: 6, 12, or 18 months after that date. Some journals allow immediate access from the manuscriptdate isof releasedpublication and availabletherefore do not apply an embargo to everyone.those publications.

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