What is open access? | Types of open access | Open access in LMS journals | Open access terminology
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What is open access?
Open access refers to the free and permanent unrestricted online access to scholarly research. Authors retain copyright to their work, and a licence is applied which allows users to download, copy, reuse and distribute the work provided the original article is fully cited.
Open access differs from free online access as it provides reuse rights provided full attribution is given while authors retain copyright to their work.
Types of open access
Gold open access
Gold open access means that the Article Version of Record is freely available to access immediately upon publication and re-use rights are governed by the author’s chosen Creative Commons licence.
Gold open access publication is available for authors who:
- Qualify for complimentary gold open access publication through an institutional agreement with the publisher*; or
- Choose to pay an Article Publication Charge (APC).
* Eligibility for institutional funding is based on the institution of the corresponding author.
Authors will also need to choose one of three Creative Commons licences. These licences provide a legal framework for giving users the ability to freely view, download and distribute content.
- CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License)
Allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article as long as the author is attributed, the article is not used for commercial purposes, and the work is not modified or adapted in any way.
- CC-BY-NC 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License)
Allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article, and adapt the article as long as the author is attributed and the article is not used for commercial purposes.
- CC-BY 4.0 (Attribution 4.0 International License)
Allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article, and adapt the article as long as the author is attributed. The CC BY license permits commercial and non-commercial reuse.
Green open access
Green open access is when authors choose to deposit their Author Accepted Manuscript on a non-commercial or institutional repository.
The Author Accepted Manuscript must be accompanied by a notice as follows: “This is the Author Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: [Full Citation], which has been published in final form at [Link to final article].”
There may be an embargo period for posting the accepted version of the manuscript in arXiv or an institutional repository.
Open access in LMS journals
The Society's journals provides a range of options for open access publishing. Before submitting to a journal, Authors should check any open access policy set by their funding body to ensure that their journal of choice supports publication under a model that meets their funding obligations.
Hybrid journals
The Society publishes seven hybrid journals, where the majority of the papers are available under subscription access but which also offer authors the option to publish gold open access. These journals also allow green open access.
| Journal | Institutional agreement with publisher | Article Publication Charges | Green open access embargo period |
| Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society | Wiley list of agreements | GBP 3,120 EUR 3,880 USD 4,700 |
No embargo for author webpage or non-commercial repositories. |
| Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society | Wiley list of agreements | GBP 2,620 EUR 3,280 USD 3,930 |
No embargo for author webpage or non-commercial repositories. |
| Journal of the London Mathematical Society | Wiley list of agreements | GBP 2,620 EUR 3,280 USD 3,930 |
No embargo for author webpage or non-commercial repositories. |
| Journal of Topology | GBP 2,620 EUR 3,280 USD 3,930 |
No embargo for author webpage or non-commercial repositories. | |
| Mathematika | GBP 2,620 EUR 3,280 USD 3,930 |
No embargo for author webpage or non-commercial repositories. | |
| Compositio Mathematica | Cambridge University Press eligibility tracker | GBP 2,320 EUR 2,700 USD 3,450 |
No embargo for author webpage or non-commercial repositories. |
| Nonlinearity | IOP Publishing Transformative agreements hub | GBP 2,410 EUR 2,765 USD 3,325 |
No embargo for author webpage. 12-months for other repositories. |
Fully open access journals
The Society publishes two fully open access journals, in which all articles are published on a gold open access basis.
| Journal | Institutional agreement with publisher | Article Publication Charges | Green open access embargo period |
| Transactions of the London Mathematical Society | Wiley list of agreements | GBP 1,460 EUR 1,650 USD 1,900 |
No embargo |
| Moduli | Cambridge University Press eligibility tracker | GBP 2,320 EUR 3,280 USD 3,930 |
No embargo |
Open access terminology
Article Version of Record – The final edited and typeset version of the article which is published in the journal.
Author Accepted Manuscript – The version of the article which was accepted by the journal editors after peer review, but has not yet been copyedited or typeset by the publisher.
Subscription publication – The Article Version of Record is published in the journal and is only accessible to journal subscribers.
Gold open access publication – The Article Version of Record is immediately freely available to access upon publication. Article re-use rights are governed by the author’s chosen Creative Commons licence.
Green open access publication – The article Version of Record is published as a Subscription publication. The author chooses to deposit the Author Accepted Manuscript on a non-commercial or institutional repository.
Article Publication Charge (APC) – A charge paid to the publisher to allow gold open access publication.
