Open access (OA) means anyone can read a research article online without paying. The colour labels describe how: who pays, which version becomes free, when, and under what licence. New to the topic? Start with our complete guide to open access; this page compares the routes and helps you choose.
Diamond, gold, green, hybrid and bronze compared
Prices below are publisher list prices checked in October 2026. They change every year, and your institution may already cover them through an agreement.
| Route | Who pays | Cost to the author | Reader access | Usual licence | Where the free version lives | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diamond | Universities, societies, funders, public bodies | Nothing | Immediate, final version | CC BY or CC BY-NC | Journal website | SciPost Physics, Discrete Analysis, Peer Community Journal |
| Gold (APC) | Author, usually via a grant, the institution or an agreement | About US$330–8,900 at Elsevier's fully OA journals (median US$2,500); PLOS ONE US$2,477; Nature Communications US$7,350 | Immediate, final version | Usually CC BY | Journal website | PLOS ONE, Nature Communications |
| Green | Nobody directly; repositories are run by institutions or communities | Nothing | Immediate or after an embargo (6 or 12 months at Springer Nature) | CC BY with rights retention, otherwise the publisher's terms | Institutional or subject repository | arXiv, Europe PMC, HAL, your university repository |
| Hybrid | Author, on top of library subscriptions | US$1,390–11,400 at Elsevier's hybrid journals (median US$3,590); Nature €10,850 | Only the paid-for article | CC BY or CC BY-NC-ND | Journal website | Most subscription journals of large publishers |
| Bronze | The publisher, voluntarily | Nothing | Free to read, can be withdrawn | None | Publisher website | Articles a publisher opens without a licence |
Diamond (platinum) open access: free to read, free to publish
The Action Plan for Diamond Open Access, published in 2022 by Science Europe, cOAlition S, OPERAS and the French National Research Agency (ANR), defines diamond OA as "a scholarly publication model in which journals and platforms do not charge fees to either authors or readers". It adds that diamond journals are "community-driven, academic-led and -owned". Platinum open access is an older name for the same model.
Someone still pays for editing and hosting, just not the author. The OA Diamond Journals Study, commissioned by cOAlition S, found that diamond journals are supported by universities, museums, government agencies and learned societies. It estimated that 17,000 to 29,000 diamond journals exist worldwide, publishing 8–9% of all scholarly articles and 44% of the articles in fully open access journals. Most are small: the typical title publishes about 23 articles a year.
In the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), 14,571 of 23,657 journals (62%) charge neither an APC nor any other author fee. Of these, 4,279 are ranked in Scopus by SCImago, including 711 in the top quartile (Q1). Fee-free does not mean low impact: SciPost Physics, Discrete Analysis and Peer Community Journal are all diamond journals ranked Q1 in our SCImago data at the time of writing.
Gold open access: open journals, usually with an APC
In a gold journal, every article is free to read on the journal's website as soon as it is published, usually under a Creative Commons licence. DOAJ only lists journals that are fully open, apply no embargo and disclose all their author charges.
The APC (article processing charge) is the fee a journal charges, usually after acceptance, to publish an article open access. It is normally paid by the author's grant, institution or a publisher agreement rather than out of pocket. In DOAJ, 9,086 journals charge an APC or another author fee. Typical list prices:
- PLOS: US$1,088 to US$6,460 depending on journal and article type; a standard PLOS ONE article costs US$2,477.
- Elsevier fully open access journals: US$330 to US$8,900, median US$2,500 (price list dated 5 October 2026).
- Nature Communications: €6,150 / US$7,350.
These fees add up: Haustein and colleagues estimate that US$8.35 billion in APCs went to six large publishers between 2019 and 2023, with yearly spending rising from US$910 million to US$2.54 billion.
A note on terminology: databases such as OpenAlex call any fully open access journal "gold" and treat diamond as the subset that charges no APC. In everyday use, "gold" usually means the fee-based kind, which is how this guide uses it. Many publishers also offer waivers; DOAJ records whether each journal has a waiver policy.
Green open access: repositories, embargoes and rights retention
With green OA you publish in the journal of your choice, including a subscription journal, and deposit a version of the paper in an open repository: your university's repository, a subject repository such as arXiv or Europe PMC, or a national one such as HAL in France. Three versions matter:
- Preprint: the version you submitted, before peer review.
- Author accepted manuscript (AAM): the version after peer review "but prior to copy-editing and typesetting", in Springer Nature's words. This is the version green OA usually relies on.
- Version of record: the final typeset article, which subscription publishers rarely let you post.
Embargoes. Publishers often delay public posting. Springer Nature sets 12 months for its Springer subscription and hybrid journals and 6 months for Nature Portfolio journals. Elsevier sets embargoes per journal and requires a CC BY-NC-ND licence on posted manuscripts. Jisc's Open Policy Finder (formerly Sherpa Romeo) shows each journal's policy. Germany and France also give authors a legal right to post the AAM, after 12 and 6–12 months respectively, for research that is at least half publicly funded.
Rights retention strategy. cOAlition S designed this strategy so that funded authors keep the right to share their AAM. You put a sentence like this in your submission and cover letter: "For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission." The AAM can then go into a repository at publication, with no embargo, whatever the journal.
Green OA costs nothing, but readers may land on the paywalled version first, and the AAM differs in layout from the published article.
Hybrid open access and why many funders won't pay for it
A hybrid journal is a subscription journal that lets authors pay to make an individual article open; OpenAlex defines it as "free under an open license in a toll-access journal". Critics call this double dipping: libraries pay subscriptions for the journal while authors pay APCs for articles in it. Hybrid fees are also high. At Elsevier, hybrid list prices run from US$1,390 to US$11,400 (median US$3,590, against US$2,500 for its fully open journals), and gold OA in Nature costs €10,850 / US$12,850.
Major funders have stopped paying these fees:
- Plan S: its principles state that "the Funders do not support the 'hybrid' model of publishing". cOAlition S ended its financial support for transformative agreements and transformative journals after 2024, though some funders keep national exceptions.
- ERC and Horizon Europe: fees paid to hybrid journals are not eligible for reimbursement.
- Wellcome: since 1 January 2025 it funds APCs only in fully open access journals and platforms indexed in DOAJ.
Your institution may still cover hybrid OA through a transformative ("read and publish") agreement. In Germany, the DEAL agreements with Wiley, Springer Nature and Elsevier pay for open access in their hybrid journals for authors at participating institutions. That helps you, but it may not satisfy your funder. The cOAlition S Journal Checker Tool tells you which routes a journal offers under your grant.
Bronze open access: free to read, but no licence
Bronze OA was named by Piwowar and colleagues in 2018: articles "made free-to-read on the publisher website, without an explicit Open license". In their sample it was the most common form of OA, ahead of gold, green and hybrid. Because there is no licence, readers have no reuse rights and the publisher can put the article back behind a paywall. Bronze articles do not meet funder mandates, which require an open licence. It is not a route an author can choose.
Which route should you choose?
Start from your constraints:
| Your situation | Best route | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No publication budget | Diamond, plus green | Shortlist diamond journals in your field. If the best fit is a subscription journal, publish there and deposit your AAM. |
| Funder mandate (Plan S, Horizon Europe, Wellcome) | Diamond, gold under CC BY, or green with rights retention | Avoid paying hybrid fees. Run the journal through the Journal Checker Tool and add the rights retention statement when you submit. |
| You need Q1 or Scopus indexing | Diamond first, then gold | 711 diamond journals are Q1. Filter by quartile, then confirm Scopus indexing; only pay an APC if no diamond journal fits. |
| You need to publish fast | Any, plus a preprint | Compare the weeks from submission to publication that journals report to DOAJ, and post a preprint for immediate visibility if the journal allows it. |
| Your institution has a publisher agreement | Gold or hybrid covered by the agreement | Ask your library what is covered, then check that your funder accepts it. |
How to find diamond journals with Open Access Finder
Open Access Finder combines the DOAJ list with SCImago/Scopus ranks, so you can search only fee-free journals and still see their quartile.
Search 14,571 Diamond open access journals by subject, quartile, country and language. No sign-up, nothing uploaded.
- Open the journal finder; it shows diamond journals by default. Type a keyword or browse by subject.
- Narrow down by quartile, language, country and maximum weeks to publication.
- Paste your abstract into the AI abstract match to rank journals by how well their scope fits your paper.
- Verify a candidate in the Scopus check, and learn what SCImago quartiles mean.
Here is how the Scopus-ranked diamond journals are spread across quartiles:
| Quartile | Scopus journals with no APC | |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 711 | Full list → |
| Q2 | 1,020 | Full list → |
| Q3 | 1,325 | |
| Q4 | 1,197 |
For ready-made lists, see free Scopus-indexed journals and free Q1 journals.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between diamond and gold open access?
Both make the final article free to read immediately. In diamond OA the author pays nothing; in gold OA the journal usually charges an APC. Some databases treat diamond as a fee-free subtype of gold.
Is platinum open access the same as diamond?
Yes. Both describe journals that charge neither readers nor authors; "diamond" is now the usual term in policy documents.
What does APC mean, and how much is it?
APC stands for article processing charge, the fee some open access journals charge to publish an article. List prices range from a few hundred dollars to more than US$12,000 for the most selective titles; a median fully open Elsevier journal costs US$2,500.
Is green open access compliant with Plan S?
Yes, if the accepted manuscript or final version is in a repository at the time of publication, with no embargo, under CC BY. The rights retention strategy is designed to make that possible even in subscription journals.
Are diamond open access journals lower quality?
Not as a group: they use the same peer review as other journals, and 711 of them are ranked Q1. Quality varies by journal, so check indexing, the editorial board and the review policy.
Can I share my paper if I published in a subscription or hybrid journal?
Usually yes, as green OA: deposit your accepted manuscript after any embargo the publisher sets, or immediately if you used the rights retention statement. Check the journal in Open Policy Finder first.
Sources
- Ancion et al. (2022). Action Plan for Diamond Open Access. Science Europe, cOAlition S, OPERAS, ANR. doi:10.5281/zenodo.6282403
- Bosman et al. (2021). OA Diamond Journals Study. Part 1: Findings; summary in cOAlition S, Reflections on the OA Diamond Journals Study.
- cOAlition S. Plan S principles; Rights Retention Strategy; end of support for transformative arrangements after 2024 (26 January 2023); Journal Checker Tool.
- ERC. Open science in practice.
- Wellcome. Open access policy.
- DOAJ. Guide to applying.
- OpenAlex. Open Access (OA) status definitions.
- Piwowar et al. (2018). The state of OA. PeerJ 6:e4375.
- Haustein et al. (2024). Estimating global article processing charges paid to six publishers for open access between 2019 and 2023. arXiv:2407.16551.
- APC price lists: PLOS fees; Elsevier journal pricing (APC price list dated 5 October 2026); Nature Communications; Nature publishing options.
- Self-archiving policies: Springer Nature journal policies; Elsevier sharing policy; Jisc Open Policy Finder.
- National rules: § 38(4) German Copyright Act (UrhG); French Digital Republic Act, art. 30 (Ouvrir la Science guide); DEAL consortium.
- Fee status, licences and quartiles: DOAJ metadata and SCImago Journal Rank, as combined by Open Access Finder.