Open access definitions
Open access (OA): Open access in this context means research literature that can be freely accessed by anyone in the world via the internet so that it can be used without licensing restrictions for research, teaching or other purposes. Copyright holders control the right to permit open access and have the right to be properly acknowledged.
Final author manuscript/author final version/author post-print: This is the accepted, author-created version following peer review and editing - i.e. not the submitted 'preprint' version. The text and any diagrams can be exactly the same as the published version, but you cannot use the published version that has publisher logos, formatting and copyright notices.
Deposition/'self-archiving'/posting: These terms refer to the open access route where the author makes a version of his/her publication available in a repository or other online situation. This is usually an author-created version and is allowed by many publishers even when copyright is transferred to them. See example self-archiving policy from Springer, author retained rights in a Blackwell Copyright Assignment Form and Elsevier’s article posting policy.
'Green' open access: Subject to copyright, authors can deposit or 'self-archive' copies of their articles in repositories alongside their publication in normal journals. This is often referred to as ‘Green’ open access. The available evidence shows that this does not affect journal subscriptions, and 62% of publishers formally allow some form of self-archiving (SHERPA/RoMEO statistics).
'Gold' open access: An alternative way of providing open access is to publish in an open access journal, often known as the ‘Gold’ route. Open access journals make their articles available for free to all readers and use a variety of business models to achieve this, rather than charging for subscriptions. One model is to charge authors for publication services, either at submission or acceptance, or there may be charges for additional services such as print-on-demand. Alternatively the journal may receive sponsorship from a society or charitable organisation. Most open access journals carry out the same level of peer review on their articles as 'traditional' journals.
Embargoes: Some publishers will have a restriction on when an author version of an article can be deposited in a repository. This is often 6-12 months after publication, and will normally be mentioned in your copyright agreement. You should consider if the publisher’s embargo period is compatible with a funder’s requirement for open access.