Green Open Access policy for journals
Funders and other organisations often require the research they support to be made freely available online, or published open access. The best way to ensure maximum openness and re-usability of an article’s content is to publish it as Gold Open Access; see our open access FAQs for more about this.
Our Green Open Access (Green OA) policies provide another way for authors to comply with funders’ requirements to make research freely available to read, by allowing authors to make pre-final versions of their journal articles publicly accessible on non-commercial websites, regardless of the licence terms their final article was published under.
This page explains what is permitted by our standard Green OA policy, which applies to most journals published by Cambridge.
Please note:
- Some journals have more permissive, or restrictive, policies than our standard policy. You can review the details of any non-standard journal policies in the downloadable spreadsheet below.
- In addition to our Green OA policies we support responsible social sharing of articles through personal networks; see our social sharing page for more information about this.
- We grant additional rights for authors to re-use their work in subsequent publications where they are an author or editor; please see our rights and permissions FAQs for details.
- Our Green OA policies may not meet funders’ or institutions’ open access policy requirements, particularly when they require authors to use a specific Creative Commons licence. Authors should carefully check their obligations against listed policies.
This policy replaces all previous Green Open Access policies issued by Cambridge University Press, and the terms of this policy apply to all journal articles retrospectively. Where an author’s publishing agreement contains different terms to a journal’s Green OA policy, the more permissive terms will apply.
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 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 organisation to provide access to the work of 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 organisation performing the activity.
- Examples: ResearchGate, Academia.edu, SSRN
What authors may post to websites and when
Our preprint policy always permits all authors to share preprints in any online repository, at any time, under any licence. We also always permit authors to share the metadata and abstract of any version of their articles in repositories and other websites.
How you may share other versions of your article will depend on the publishing agreement you signed with Cambridge.
Articles published under non-exclusive licences
If you publish your article Gold Open Access in a Cambridge journal, in most cases you will sign a non-exclusive licence to publish. Under this kind of licence, all copyright in the article remains unchanged. This means that if you own all the copyright in your article, you are always free to re-use and share any version of your article, for any purpose, at any time, under any licence.
Please note however that if any of the copyright in your article is owned by someone else – for example if your article includes images you've obtained from a third party – you may need their permission to share those parts of your article outside of the journal your article was published in. Please see our guidance for authors on seeking permission to re-use copyrighted material.
Articles published under exclusive licences
If you publish an article with Cambridge that is not Gold Open Access, you will usually sign an exclusive licence to publish. In some cases you may sign a copyright transfer agreement. Under these kinds of publishing agreements, if you want to share your article outside of the journal it was published in, this must be permitted by Cambridge.
Cambridge's Green Open Access policy gives you permission to share some versions of your article under certain conditions:
Accepted Manuscript (AM):
- If your VoR was published under a CC BY, CC BY-SA, or CC BY-ND licence, you may share your AM in any repository under the same licence.
- If your VoR was published under a CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-SA, or CC BY-NC-ND licence, you may share your AM in any non-commercial repository under the same licence. You may not share your AM in any commercial repository or on any social media site.
- If your VoR was published with all rights reserved, our Green OA policy permits you to share your AM in any non-commercial repository, under a CC BY-NC-ND licence only. In this case a 6-month embargo also applies to all articles published in science, technical or medical journals, meaning you may not share your AM until 6 months after the date of publication of your VoR. (No embargo applies to articles published in humanities or social science journals.)
Version of Record (VoR)
- If your VoR was published under a CC BY, CC BY-SA, or CC BY-ND licence, you may share your VoR in any repository under the same licence.
- If your VoR was published under a CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-SA, or CC BY-NC-ND licence, you may share your VoR in any non-commercial repository under the same licence.
If you want to share your article in any other ways, you will need written permission from Cambridge and any other rights holders, such as any third parties that own any of the copyright in your article. Please see our guidance for authors on seeking permission to re-use copyrighted material.
Again, some journals have more permissive, or restrictive, policies than our standard policies. You can review the full details of all non-standard policies in the downloadable spreadsheet above.
Please also 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 "What is accepted manuscript publication?" in our production FAQs for more information.
Further policy details
Citing Cambridge when posting content in repositories
When posting content in repositories, you must include:
- If the VoR 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.
- If the VoR has been published by Cambridge, a link to the article on Cambridge Core, using the article's DOI.
- A clear statement of the licence terms under which you have shared this version of your article, for example:
- This article has been published in a revised form in [Journal] at [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(s)].
- This article has been published in a revised form in [Journal] at [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(s)].
Licences you can apply when sharing your article
You may always share your preprints and SMURs under any licence terms you choose. We recommend a CC BY or other Creative Commons licence.
If your publishing agreement with Cambridge is a non-exclusive licence to publish (most Gold OA articles), you may also share your AM and VoR under any licence you choose.
If your publishing agreement with Cambridge is an exclusive licence to publish, or a copyright transfer agreement (most non-Gold-OA articles):
- You may share your AM under the same licence your VoR was published under, or under a CC BY-NC-ND licence. Note that a CC BY-NC-ND licence does not permit you to share your AM in a commercial repository or on a social media site.
- You may only share your VoR in accordance with the licence terms it was published under.
Third-party material
Before posting articles online, you must ensure that you have the appropriate permission to include any third-party content. When posting articles under a Creative Commons licence, this 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 explained above, our standard Green OA policy for science, technical and medical journals has a six-month embargo period after publication of the VoR, before you can share your Accepted Manuscript. However, you may deposit your AM in a repository during this embargo period, provided the full text is not made publicly accessible until the embargo ends. This is sometimes referred to as a "closed deposit".
Metadata about the article (for example the article title, abstract, and journal citation) can be made public as soon as the VoR has been published on Cambridge Core.
Any applicable embargo period starts from the date the Version of Record is first published on Cambridge Core, whether as part of a journal issue or as a FirstView article. (Note that if Cambridge publishes an Accepted Manuscript prior to publishing the VoR, the embargo period does not begin until the VoR is published.)