Open Access Publishing: Open Access at Colby

Gold OA: Authors publish in an open access or hybrid journal that makes articles openly available immediately on the publisher's website. Usually the author or grant institution pays an article processing charge (APC) for this access.

Green OA: Authors can self-archive a pre-print, post-print, or publisher's version in an institutional repository such as Colby's College's Digital Commons@Colby. Normally publishers require an embargo of 6 months or a year on this content. Publisher policies can be found on the publisher's website or using SherpaRoMEO.

Diamond OA: Journals that are free to publish and free to read are considered Diamond or Platinum Open Access. A list of Diamond OA journals can be found using the Directory for Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

• Read and Publish Deal with Cambridge University Press
• Publish Green OA with Digital Commons@Colby
• Open Educational Resources
• Copyright and Fair Use expertise
• Colby Libraries OA Memberships and Partnerships

Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin have an agreement with Cambridge University Press. The agreement provides access to Cambridge journals and unlimited coverage of Article Processing Charges (APCs) to our authors who publish Open Access in Gold OA or Hybrid OA Cambridge journals.

The agreement term runs from 2021 through 2023.

For more information, visit: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/open-access-policies/read-and-publish-agreements/oa-agreement-cbb

Even though your scholarship may be paywalled (only accessible via subscription or a fee), most publishers will allow you to archive an open access version of your work in your institutional repository. This is known as Green Open Access. Digital Commons@Colby is Colby's institutional repository and we are happy to support open access scholarship.

Why Contribute Content to Digital Commons@Colby?

For Students and Faculty- 

• Increase visibility of scholarship - discoverable by Google
• Access your scholarship indefinitely with stable URLs
• Publish non-traditional scholarship such as presentations, field trips, etc.
• Avoid legal issues (we know the rules)
• Measure readership by receiving monthly usage reports.

For the College - 

• Increase the visibility, prestige, and public value of the college and the scholarly work of its members.
• Supports the mission of the institution.

How to Contribute?

If you would like to contribute materials to Digital Commons@Colby or if you have any questions about the repository, email libraries@colby.edu

Open Access materials can also help ease the financial burden on students. Open Educational Resources, or OER, are educational materials that are openly licensed. 

For help finding materials to use in your class, please email: libraries@colby.edu

Working on an article, book chapter, or monograph and want to know if you have permissions to use specific content? Thinking about scanning materials for your class or showing a video? Understanding copyright and fair use will help you to navigate these questions. Reach out to your library subject specialist for assistance, or email: libraries@colby.edu

• Direct to Open supporting member. The Colby Libraries supports this initiative out of MIT Press which published eBook monographs open access.
• SPARC institutional membership. The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition is a non-profit organization that advocates for and supports open publishing and equitable access to research.
• Lyrasis Open Access Community Investment Program contributors. Colby Libraries has contributed funding to several open access journals through the OACIP.
• JSTOR's Reveal Digital funding library. Colby libraries contributes funds to support open access primary source digital collections.
• University of Michigan Press's Fund to Mission open access Ebook Initiative. Colby Libraries is a library supporter of the fund to open ebook publishing initiative.
• Mathematical Sciences Publishers Subscribe to Open program. Colby Libraries is a library supporter of the fund to publish articles in MSP journals Open Access. This includes: Geometry & Topology, Algebraic & Geometric Topology, Algebra & Number Theory, Analysis & PDE, and Pacific Journal of Mathematics.