eth Montague-Hellen, Francis Crick Institute, Katie Fraser, University of Nottingham Open Access is a foundational topic in Scholarly Communications. However, when information professionals and publishers talk about its future, it is nearly always Gold open access we discuss. Green was seen as the big solution for providing access to those who couldn’t afford it. However, publishers have protested that Green destroys their business models. How true is this, and are we even all talking the same language when we talk about Green?

1. Let’s Talk
About
Green
Dr Beth Montague-Hellen, Francis Crick Institute
Dr Katie Fraser, University of Nottingham

2. Setting the scene – what do we mean by
green?
 Author deposits post-print text in general repository (e.g. ePMC)
 Author deposits post-print text in institutional repository
 Author deposits post-print text in commercial repository (e.g. researchgate)
 Publisher makes text open and then deposits it in repository
 Author deposits pre-print text on pre-print server/repository

3. Self archiving
Computer
Scientists self
archiving via ftp
Subversive
Proposal
Stevan Harnad formally
proposed online posting
as a publication method
Sherpa Romeo
Sherpa Romeo develops colour coding
system. Green, Blue and Yellow all
describe some form of self archiving.
REF OA policy
REF required that all
submitted publications
were OA. Green was the
primary mechanism.
2016
2004
1994
1980
s
Design by Slidesgo
2018
Plan S
Both Green & Gold lead to
compliance. But the race
to flip journals has in
some cases sidelined
Green.
The history of Green OA

4. Green tinted glasses
– where's the vision?
 Radically open
o Grass roots & community organised
o Removing financial barriers
 Expansion of content
o Green & Grey
o Preprints and Working Papers
o Theses
 Stewardship of content
o Discipline versus institutional collections
o Local context-themed collections
o Evolving standards
Image by Nadar, used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 licence

5. Local context: Which Green do we
prioritise?
 University of Nottingham  Francis Crick Institute

6. Policy swings
Green
2016 – REF2020/1
prioritises Green, Gold
initially described as an
“exception”.
Gold
2012 – Finch report
Leans towards Gold, as does
RCUK OA policy which
follows in 2013.
2021 – UKRI OA policy.
Allows Green and Gold
compliant routes.
2018 - Plan S – Allows both
Gold & Green, but
prioritisation of 'flipping'
journals foregrounds Gold.
2023 - Towards responsible
publishing (Plan S v2).
Radically Green or beyond?
2024 – REF 2029 OA
consultation. Reconnects
Green with embargoes.

7. Where does Green sits among other
models?

8. Green or Gold: A false dichotomy?
 Jisc report shows
Global Green +
Gold as low. But is
it in the UK?

9. COKI OA dashboard gives a
different picture
United Kingdom
USA
Indonesia
China
Japan
Nigeria

10. COKI OA dashboard gives a different
picture
University of Nottingham Francis Crick Institute

11. Do researchers dislike Green? How much is
based on appearances?
 What's the goal: Prestige vs information
 AAM: "last version sent to the publishers" can be confusing
o butLaTeX & templates can make the green version just as attractive

12. Do researchers dislike Green? How much is
based on appearances?
 What's the goal: Prestige vs information
 AAM: "last version sent to the publishers" can be confusing
o But LaTeX & templates can make the green version just as attractive
 In future: Generative AI may have us consuming content from articles without ever seeing the format
 Research quality should be the main thing for researchers

13. Is Green a parasite? Would a Green landscape kill publishers?
"Yes – I think it's a risk but one
scholarly comms should take"
 Going pure Green could kill publisher
business models
 We need infrastructure and services but is
that a “publisher”?
 Publishing needs to match disciplinary
requirements, not one-size-fits-all
"No – but publishers might
need to change"
• Publishing as a way of collecting and collating
content
• Alternative funding models e.g. publishing as
a service
• More specific & society publishers rather than
megaliths (sorry to the megalith publishers in
the audience)
We're in agreement that
publishers need to evolve
in order to avoid the risks
created by Green.

14. Conclusions
 What's important to an actual researcher and does Green
serve that (or not)?
 We want a heterogenous system with different options for
different disciplines that doesn’t cost the world (in either
sense).
 We need Green to be more respected. Improved discovery
and Generative AI will ensure our focus is on the
information.
 Green could become redundant, but it feels a long way
down the line.