There are two types of Open Access journals; Green and Gold.
Green journals give authors permission to self-archive their work on a personal website or institutional repository.
List of journals that allow author archiving
Gold journals provide access to peer-reviewed articles without charging the reader and make up approximately 30% of the scholarly literature. The business model varies, but the majority do not charge publication fees.
Gold Journal Examples
SHERPA / ROMEO is a resource that consolidates publisher open access policies, listing each publisher's copyright transfer agreement. Your can search by journal title or by publisher to determine what a publisher will allow under their standard agreement. An open access policy should specify what level of archiving is acceptable.
| Journal Color | Archiving policy |
| green | can archive pre-print and post-print or publisher's version/PDF |
| blue | can archive post-print (ie final draft post-refereeing) or publisher's version/PDF |
| yellow | can archive pre-print (ie pre-refereeing) |
| white | archiving not formally supported |
What is a pre-print?
It is the author's initial version of an article submitted to a publication before it has been reviewed. Public Library of Science PLOS explains how they handle pre-prints.