Publishing Guidance
Overview
Selecting an appropriate publisher or journal is essential to ensure compliance with the NSF Public Access requirements. Policy Notice Supplements 1 and 2 require that supporting data and peer-reviewed Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAMs) be deposited at or before the time of publication, with no embargo.
Publisher agreements and embargo policies vary. If you are uncertain whether a publishing agreement will allow you to meet NSF requirements, we strongly recommend consulting a librarian prior to finalizing any agreements.
- Ultimately, the article must be deposited into the NSF Public Access Repository (PAR)
without embargo to ensure compliance. To achieve this, a journal/publisher must:
- Allow author rights to self-deposit without embargo
- No publisher will automatically deposit into the NSF repository on the authors behalf
- A persistent identifier (PID) will be issued when the article is deposited which along with the availability in NSF PAR will serve as proof of compliance
- An Article Processing Charge (APC) is a fee for open access and/or publishing with select journals/publishers. Some publishers may require an APC for publishing models that allow authors the right to self-deposit without embargo.
Open Access (OA)
Publishing method that makes article freely available on the publisher’s website.
- Author must be permitted retention of rights to self-deposit to comply with NSF public access requirements.
Types of OA policies
Gold
Published content is freely available to read but requires some form of payment by the author or their funder, typically as an APC.
Diamond/Platinum
(used interchangeably): Published content is freely available to read, and journals do not charge authors or readers.
Green
Journals grant right for author(s) to self-deposit into repositories or websites.
Occasionally have an embargo period to self-deposit, there cannot be an embargo to comply with the NSF public access requirements.
Public Access
Research that is made freely available to the public.
NSF ensures this by requiring all NSF-funded articles to be deposited into the NSF Public Access Repository (PAR).
Hybrid Access
Publisher has both a subscription and open access option. Must allow author to retain rights to self-deposit, to comply with this option.
Article processing charge (APC) generally required for open access
Library Contact: openaccess@lists.utah.edu
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