Open Access (OA): “Open access is a broad international movement that seeks to grant free and open online access to academic information, such as publications and data. A publication is defined 'open access' when there are no financial, legal or technical barriers to accessing it - that is to say when anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search for and search within the information, or use it in education or in any other way within the legal agreements.”1
Gold OA: One of the two main OA publishing types. When you publish Gold OA, the final version of your article will be OA right away. An APC (see below) is usually required.
Green OA: The other main OA publishing type. When you publish Green OA, your article may be behind a paywall on the journal's website, but you can self-archive a version of your article in a repository, such as TRUSpace. Sometimes an embargo is required between the journal publishing the article and the author submitting the article to a repository. This method of publishing does not require an APC.
Preprint: a version of an article that is before peer-review and formatting. Sometimes, an author is permitted to share their preprint open access.
Postprint: a version of an article that has gone through peer-review, but not formatting. Sometimes an author may share this version OA.
Institutional repository: an archive that collects, preserves, and shares the “intellectual output” of an institution. TRU’s institutional repository is TRUSpace.
Embargo: a wait period during which individuals cannot access an article for free. Instead, during this time period (usually 6-24 months) they must pay for access.
Author/article processing charge (APC): a fee that authors sometimes must pay to publish their article openly. This is so the publisher can still make a profit while not making money from subscriptions to the journal.