Open Access Publishing Glossary

Term	Description
Article processing charge (APC)	Fee paid for papers published through the Gold route (in fully open access journals). The University has Open Access Block Grants from UKRI, The Wellcome Trust, and BHF to pay APCs. Authors are required to complete and submit an open access claim form. Forms should be submitted before submitting a manuscript to confirm eligibility and availability of funding.
Authors' Accepted manuscript (AAM)	Version of paper incorporating changes arising from peer review, but before publisher formatting. Also known as Author's Manuscript, Accepted Manuscript (AM), or postprint.
CC-BY	Creative Commons Attribution copyright licence which allows for unrestricted reuse of content with the requirement that the source work is appropriately attributed. There are six Creative Commons licenses but the CC-BY licence is the most permissive and ensures the widest reach and reuse of a publication. It is the required licence for publications funded by UKRI, The Wellcome Trust, or BHF. See the University's detailed guidance on Open Access Licensing: Creative Commons.
Crown Copyright	Work created by civil servants, ministers, and government departments and agencies is subject to Crown Copyright. If your work is produced on behalf of a government department, it may be subject to Crown Copyright and you should check the terms of your agreement with them. Crown copyright works can be shared under the terms of the Open Government Licence. If your work is not on behalf of a government department or agencies, then it is not subject to Crown Copyright.
Embargo period	A length of time that publishers set before authors are allowed to make publications open access via a repository ('Green OA'). Embargoes will vary by journal/publisher and are available on the journal's webpage, the publisher's self-archiving policy, or in Jisc's Open Policy Finder. The University has adopted a Scholarly Works Policy which means outputs made available via the institutional repository do not need to be embargoed.
Gold open access	The Gold route (paid open access publishing) achieves immediate online public open access via your chosen publisher, usually for a fee called an article processing charge (APC). Bristol researchers who are funded by UKRI, The Wellcome Trust, and BHF are eligible to apply for OA funding support to pay an APC. There are two types of journals which offer paid OA publishing: Hybrid journal: typically published under a subscription model but individual articles are published open access if an APC is paid. The APC payment is optional. Gold only ('fully OA') journal: all articles are published open access but an APC payment is required.
Green open access ('self archiving' or 'repository route')	The Green route involves the author publishing under the traditional subscription route (the publisher version is behind a paywall) and then self-archiving (uploading) the accepted manuscript in an institutional or subject specific repository such as the Bristol Research Portal (Pure) or ArXiv. If the preprint was published open access in a preprint server, this is also sometimes referred to as Green OA, but researchers and users must be aware this is not the final version of the manuscript and may not include corrections or meet funder and REF OA policy requirements. Publisher embargo periods normally apply to papers published through the green route, although University of Bristol authors have a no-embargo route via the institutional repository.
Hybrid journal	Published under a subscription model with open access granted to individual articles on payment of a publishing fee or APC payment. The APC payment is optional and the journal will normally have a self-archiving policy which states when (e.g. after an embargo) and under which licence the accepted manuscript can be deposited to a public repository.
Open Policy Finder	A service that aggregates publisher, journal, and funder policies on open access, self-archiving, etc. to provide a reference bank of relevant information for authors. The tool is maintained by Jisc.
Postprint	The version of a paper or article after peer-review but before publication. This version will contain revisions, and is often referred to as the accepted author manuscript (AAM). In some disciplines a paper may proceed through several iterations of peer review. The postprint or AAM is normally the version which includes the same textual content as the published version, but before the journal's formatting has been applied.
Preprint (or 'submitted manuscript')	The version of a paper or article before peer review. A preprint may be the draft early version of a paper. Preprints can be made open access by publishing them via a dedicated preprint server. Most journals allow submissions which have been shared as preprints, but researchers should double-check the journal's policy.
Publisher PDF (or 'Version of Record')	The final version for publication including the journal/publisher's typesetting and formatting. This version is also sometimes referred to as the version of record or publisher version. It is the definitive version and is normally assigned a DOI by the publisher.
Pure	The University of Bristol’s Institutional Repository and Current Research Information System (CRIS) which collects, organises and integrates information about research. This is where research outputs can be self-archived to make them open access. The information in Pure is made publicly available through the Bristol Research Portal and is discoverable through Google and other search engines.
Request a copy	The Request-a-copy feature on the Bristol Research Portal is a service the University offers to the general public, who are less likely to have subscription access to online journals. Between acceptance and publication, metadata about your forthcoming publication may be made publicly available. The accepted manuscript is not available by default, but users can request a copy using the link to the right of each record. The Open Access Team will forward requests for early access to you (which normally include a brief statement about why the user wants to access your publication) and you can determine whether it is appropriate to share with the user. The University of Bristol expects that authors will engage in this process. Please take the time to reply to the requester directly and let them know whether you are willing to share your work or why it is not appropriate to do so. You will need to take any copyright agreements with the publisher into consideration.
Self-archiving ('Green OA')	For the purposes of open access, self-archiving is the act of depositing an electronic version of a paper or article in an institutional or subject specific repository. This is usually the Authors' Accepted Manuscript (AAM).
Validation	The final step in the output record process in Pure. This is completed by the Open Access team (Research Support, Library Services). A record will be validated and made public via Explore Bristol Research only after acceptance, once the accepted manuscript file has been uploaded, the Pure record has been checked, and any applicable embargo periods have been set.
VAT number	The University's VAT number is GB991261800.
Version of Record (VoR)	The final, definitive version of a paper that has been made available by a publisher, usually on the journal's webpage. This version will have proof corrections, been through copy editing, and will include final formatting. The version of record is also sometimes known as the article of record, the publisher PDF or the publisher (published) version.

The University of Bristol Open Access Publishing Glossary was last updated on 29 October 2026. Feedback on the glossary can be shared with the Research Support team.