#OAWeek2025: Self-determined publishing – Green Open Access with TORE as a genuine alternative

5,000 Euro for a single article – that is how much some publishers charge for ONE open access publication. Yet they often demand that authors assign their usage rights. The publishing landscape has become more diverse in recent years, but so have the pitfalls: it is easy to assign rights – sometimes unconsciously – that you will later regret losing. If there are no or only limited open access options, it is important to secure the right to self-archive. This article shows what options are available even after publication by a publisher to make your publication accessible worldwide, free of charge and on your own terms.

Green Open Access – a self-determined alternative

In order to avoid or prevent the sometimes very high open access publication fees (article processing charges) and having to transfer the rights of use for an article to the publisher, there is the option of publishing in Green Open Access. Another term for this is “secondary publication rights”. The aim here is to make the already existing publication, which was published in closed access, publicly available to the scientific community. Most publishers allow preprints or postprints to be published in institutional repositories after a certain embargo period. As a rule, the accepted manuscript can be used for this purpose. This open access variant is then referred to as Green Open Access.

§38 German Copyright Act

If a scientific article has been funded with at least 50% public funds and appears in a specialist journal, the author may, according to §38 of the German Copyright Act, make it freely available as a manuscript version after twelve months – even if he has granted the publisher exclusive rights of use. It is important that this is not done for commercial purposes and that the original publication is cited. Agreements that restrict this right are invalid.

Check publishing guidelines: The Open Policy Finder

The Open Policy Finder (formerly known as SHERPA Romeo) provides an overview of the different conditions of many publishers and journals. Here, you can easily search for the relevant journal and view the different options for Green Open Access publication, both for the published version and for the accepted and submitted manuscript.

TORE – das Repository der TUHH

TORE is the open access repository of the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) for scientific publications and research data. It serves as a research information system and makes the TUHH’s research landscape visible to the scientific community. It presents institutes, working groups, researchers, and their publications, research data, and projects.

TUHH members have the opportunity to publish their scientific work, such as dissertations, preprints, accepted manuscripts, and research data, in TORE and make it accessible in the long term. All full-text publications that are first published on TORE also receive a DOI and can therefore be cited permanently without restriction. Even if the publisher has imposed an embargo period, it is still possible to deposit the publication, including the full text, in TORE. The full text can also be given a time restriction in TORE and will be published automatically when this restriction expires.

Our TORE team will be happy to help you enter a new Green Open Access entry in TORE. Alternatively, there is a comprehensive help page.

Advantages of Green Open Access summarized with TORE

• No loss of rights; the rights remain with the authors.
• No costs are incurred for publication, as with conventional open access publications.
• Global visibility of your own research.
• Findability in global search engines.
• Long-term archiving of the publication.
• Citation capability through your own DOI.

Beware of losing your rights: What happens when rights are transferred?

Whether it is an open access publication or closed access, if you have transferred the rights to the publisher in a publishing agreement, this has various implications. The publisher often grants itself the exploitation rights or rights of use through the publishing agreement, allowing it to reproduce and distribute the publication without restriction. It can then decide how and where the work may be published and used. It is important to note that only exploitation and usage rights can be transferred. The copyright itself is NOT transferable.

The example of the cumulative dissertation

As also mentioned in the blog post „Who Owns Our Knowledge? Why OER are more than just open materials”, it is difficult to use your own publication elsewhere after transferring rights. This also includes the possibility of using it for a cumulative dissertation. The work can no longer be used or made available to others for use without the publisher’s consent, as the rights to do so lie with the publisher. In case of doubt, the rights to one’s own article must be bought back from the publisher at great expense, even for a one-time use in a dissertation.

Special case of “non-commercial” licenses (e.g., CC-BY-NC-ND)

Caution is also advised when granting restrictive open access licenses such as CC-BY-NC-ND. Although this appears to be an open access license, the publisher can still grant itself rights for commercial use. A „non-commercial“ license excludes commercial use, but publishers usually require that the rights reserved for commercial use be transferred to them again. Many publishers often claim these rights exclusively, which significantly reduces the influence you have over your own work. Further information on this topic is available on the DEAL consortium website.

Act now: Your research deserves visibility

Have you already published articles in closed-access journals? Check whether secondary publication is possible:

1. Check publisher guidelines: Use the Open Policy Finder to check the terms and conditions of your journal.
2. Contact the TORE team: Our team will assist you with secondary publication.
3. Use §38 of the German Copyright Act (UrhG): Was your research publicly funded? If so, you may have the right to secondary publish your work after an embargo period.

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