Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to research publications/Annex C: Glossary

Annex C: Glossary of terms used

Basic and applied research

The commonly-used definitions of research derive from the Frascati Manual which sets out the methodology for collecting statistics about research and development. The Manual is published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The key definitions are

• Basic research is experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundation of phenomena and observable facts, without any particular application or use in view.
• Applied research is also original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge. It is, however, directed primarily towards a specific practical aim or objective.
• Experimental development is systematic work, drawing on existing knowledge gained from research and/or practical experience, which is directed to producing new materials, products or devices, to installing new processes, systems and services, or to improving substantially those already produced or installed.

Most of the research that is reported in the journals that are the focus of this report is either basic or applied research.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through easy-to-use copyright licenses that provide a simple, standardized way to give the public permission to share and use creative work on conditions that authors and creators choose. The licences are built around four sets of conditions:

• Attribution (by), which allows users to copy, distribute, display and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only if they give the authors credit in the form they prescribe
• Non-commercial (nc), which allows users to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only for non-commercial purposes
• No Derivative Works (nd), which allows users to copy, distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of the work, and not any derivative works based on it
• Share-alike (sa), which allows users to distribute derivative works only under a licence identical to the licence that governs the original work

The conditions may be combined in a number of ways, reflecting the conditions the creators wish to impose. The CC-BY licence imposes the fewest conditions, although there is also a CC Zero licence under which creators waive all copyrights and related interests that they may have over a work.

Journals

The journals that are the focus of our report are referred to by various terms, including academic journals, learned journals, scholarly journals and scientific journals. The key point is that they publish peer-reviewed articles reporting on the results of research across all disciplines. They often contain other material, including reviews, news, and correspondence.

They are published by a wide range of publishers: large commercial organisations such as Elsevier, Springer and Wiley-Blackwell; learned societies such as the Biochemical Society or the Royal Geographical Society in the UK, or the American Institute of Physics in the US; and university presses including Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. Journals owned by learned societies may be published on their own account or on their behalf by commercial, university press or other learned society publishers.

The main business models for journal publishers are

• subscription-based, where revenues come mainly in the form of payments from libraries for licences to gain access via the publisher’s platform
• open access, where revenues come mainly in the form of article processing or publishing charges (APCs) paid by or on behalf of authors. But some open access journals are supported by grants or by voluntary efforts, and charge no fee
• hybrid, where journals that operate under the subscription-based model provide an option for open access publication upon payment of an APC, in which case the article will be made openly accessible, free of charge, immediately upon publication.

Open Access

There are a number of interlocking strands to the open access movement:

• access without payment to a version of a publication via a repository, often after an embargo period. This strand is often called green open access
• access without payment to the version of record of a publication via the publisher’s own platform. This strand is often called gold open access
• the removal of the payment barrier, so that users have a right to read some version of an article. This is often called gratis open access
• the removal of most if not all of the restrictions on the use and re-use of articles. This is often called libre open access.

These strands are not distinct, and they can interlock in various ways: thus versions of the articles available on publishers’ platforms may also be accessible via one or more repositories.

Versions of articles

As an article proceeds through drafts from the authors to publication, it goes through a number of versions. The National Information Standards Organisation in the US, and the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers have set a standard nomenclature for these versions

• Author’s Original: any version of a journal article that is considered by the author to be of sufficient quality to be submitted for formal peer review by a second party.

• Submitted Manuscript Under Review: any version of a journal article that is under formal review managed by a recognized publishing entity. The entity recognizes its responsibility to provide objective expert review and feedback to the author, and, ultimately, to pass judgment on the fitness of the article for publication with an “accept” or “reject” decision

• Accepted Manuscript: the version of a journal article that has been accepted for publication in a journal

• Version of Record: a fixed version of a journal article that has been made available by any organization that acts as a publisher by formally and exclusively declaring the article “published”

• Corrected Version of Record: a version of the Version of Record of a journal article in which errors in the VoR have been corrected

• Enhanced Version of Record: a version of the Version of Record of a journal article that has been updated or enhanced by the provision of supplementary material.