Green open access policy for journals
Funders and other organizations often require research articles funded by them to be made freely available online, or “open access”. The best way to ensure maximum openness and re-usability of your article’s content is to publish it as Gold Open Access; see our Open Access FAQs for more about this.
For articles that are not published Gold OA, our Green Open Access policy provides another way for authors to comply with funders’ open access requirements, by allowing authors to make pre-final versions of their journal articles publicly accessible in non-commercial websites.
This page explains what versions of their articles authors are permitted to make publicly accessible, in what ways, by our Green OA policy. Our Green OA policy applies to all journal articles published by Cambridge University Press, but it is primarily designed to support open access for articles that are sustained by journal subscriptions. For this reason, our Green OA policy is not as permissive about what authors may do with articles in comparison with articles published fully open access (Gold OA).
Please note that some journals have more permissive policies than our standard policy, you can review this in the document below.
For most authors, our Green OA policies are not compatible with Plan S. Authors should publish as Gold OA in order to comply with Plan S.
We also support responsible social sharing of articles through personal networks; you can find out more information about this on our dedicated social sharing page.
Please also see our Rights and Permissions FAQs for additional rights we grant to authors to re-use their work.
Green Open Access Policy (Version 2)
Terms and definitions
We use the following terms and definitions in this policy:
Article versions:
- Preprint: An early version of an article created prior to the version submitted for publication in a journal. Theses and dissertations are considered to be preprints. See here for our full policy on preprints.
- Submitted Manuscript Under Review (SMUR): Any version of the article that is under formal review for inclusion in the journal. Please note that publicly sharing manuscripts while they are under review may compromise the anonymity of the peer review process.
- Accepted Manuscript (AM): The version of the article that has been accepted for publication. This version may include revisions resulting from peer review but may be subject to further modification by Cambridge University Press (for example, copyediting and typesetting).
- Version of Record (VoR): The version that is formally published in the journal. This includes any FirstView article that is formally identified as being published online before the compilation of a journal issue. The VoR includes any post-publication corrections.
Types of websites:
- Personal webpage: Web pages created by you, about you and your research which are hosted on a non-commercial website (such as your institute’s website). Personal profile pages in commercial sharing sites (such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu and Facebook) are not considered to be personal web pages.
- Department or institutional repository: Web pages hosted by an academic or research institute or department to provide access to the work of, and to promote the activities of, an institute or department, at all times operating for a non-commercial purpose.
- Non-commercial subject repository: Web pages hosted by an organization to provide access to the work from researchers working in a subject or range of subjects, at all times operating for a non-commercial purpose.
- Examples: PubMed Central, arXiv
- Commercial repository: Any repository that uses content for direct or indirect financial gain. When considering whether a use is commercial or non-commercial, we look at the nature of the activity rather than the nature of the site or organization performing the activity.
- Examples: ResearchGate, Academia.edu, SSRN
What authors may post to websites and when
Please see the table to the left or the text below for full details of how authors are permitted to share different versions of their manuscripts.
Please see the table to the left or the text below for full details of how authors are permitted to share different versions of their manuscripts.
Version of Manuscript: Preprint, SMUR
Personal web page: Entire article, at any time
Department, institutional, or non-commercial subject repository: Entire article, at any time
Commercial repository or social media site: Entire article, at any time
Version of Manuscript: Accepted Manuscript (for science, technical and medical journals)
Personal web page: Entire article, on acceptance
Department, institutional, or non-commercial subject repository: Entire article, 6 months after publication
Commercial repository or social media site: Abstract only, plus link to VoR on cambridge.org, at any time
Version of Manuscript: Accepted Manuscript (for humanities and social science journals)
Personal web page: Entire article, on acceptance
Department, institutional, or non-commercial subject repository: Entire article, on acceptance
Commercial repository or social media site: Abstract only, plus link to VoR on cambridge.org, at any time
Version of Manuscript: VoR
Personal web page: Abstract only, plus link to VoR on cambridge.org, at any time
Department, institutional, or non-commercial subject repository: Abstract only, plus link to VOR on cambridge.org, at any time
Commercial repository or social media site: Abstract only, plus link to VoR on cambridge.org, at any time
Please note that some journals operate a workflow whereby Cambridge University Press publishes an Accepted Manuscript on cambridge.org when the article enters the production cycle. This is a separate process to what authors are allowed to do under our Green OA policy; please see our Production FAQs for more information.
Further policy details
Plan S compliance
Our Green OA policy does not meet the open access requirements of Plan S, and our publishing agreements with authors may conflict with authors' agreements with cOAlition S funders. Authors should publish articles Gold Open Access in order to be compliant with Plan S.
Licences authors can use
Authors may make Preprints and SMURs publicly accessible under any licence terms they choose. We recommend a Creative Commons CC BY or other CC licence.
If the Version of Record is published as fully open access (Gold OA) under a Creative Commons licence, the authors may make the Accepted Manuscript accessible under the same Creative Commons licence as the Version of Record. For articles that are not published as Gold OA, authors may make Accepted Manuscripts available under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence or equivalent, but not a more permissive licence. This policy does not allow authors to make these AMs accessible under a CC BY licence, for example.
Third-party material
Before posting articles online, authors should ensure they have the appropriate permission to include any third party content. When posting articles under a Creative Commons licence, the permission should allow the third-party material to either (i) be included under the Creative Commons licence or (ii) be clearly indicated as being protected by third party copyright, with a clear notice that it cannot be reused without further permissions clearance from the identified third-party rights holder.
Closed deposits and embargo periods
As shown in the table above, our standard policy for science, technical and medical journals has a six-month embargo period after publication, before Accepted Manuscripts can be made publicly accessible. However, authors may deposit articles in repositories before the articles can be made public, provided the content is not publicly accessible. This is sometimes referred to as ‘closed deposit’.
Metadata about the article (for example the article title, abstract, and journal citation) can be made public as soon as the article has been published on Cambridge Core. The full text must not be made public before any applicable embargo ends.
Any applicable embargo period starts from the date the Version of Record is first published online, whether as part of a journal’s issue or as a FirstView article prior to the compilation of the journal issue.
Posting content in repositories
When posting content in repositories, we require authors to include:
- If an article has not yet been published on Cambridge Core, a clear statement that the material has been accepted for publication in a revised form, with a link to the journal’s site on Cambridge Core.
- For all published articles, a link to the article on Cambridge Core, for example with a DOI-based link.
- A clear statement about the licence terms under which the posted version of the article is shared.
Example statements are:
- This article has been published in a revised form in [Journal] [http://doi.org/XXX]. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution or re-use. © copyright holder.
- This article has been published in a revised form in [Journal] [http://doi.org/XXX]. This version is published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence. No commercial re-distribution or re-use allowed. Derivative works cannot be distributed. © copyright holder.
Changes from our Green OA policy Version 1
We have also clarified:
- How we define personal webpages, departmental and institutional repositories.
- How we define ‘non-commercial’ and ‘commercial’ use.
- That articles can be deposited in institutional or other repositories at any time as a closed deposit.
- That preprints can be archived anywhere at any time, in the same way as submitted manuscripts, and that theses or dissertations can also be considered to be preprints.
- That Preprints and Submitted Manuscripts Under Review can posted under any license the author chooses, including Creative Commons CC BY.
- How we determine the start of embargo periods.
- How Accepted Manuscripts deposited in Institutional Repositories should be cited by readers.