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Glossary of terms
Every jargon word this blog uses, defined in plain English — the vocabulary of open access, repositories, licensing and research literacy, gathered in one place. 61 terms.
A
- Abstract
- short summary of a paper's purpose, methods and findings How to Read a Research Paper →
- Accepted manuscript
- peer-reviewed text before journal typesetting Open Access, Without the Jargon →
- APA
- American Psychological Association style; author-date in-text format Citing Sources Properly →
- APC
- article processing charge; fee paid to publish open access Open Access, Without the Jargon →
- APC (article processing charge)
- fee paid to publish a paper open access APCs & Funding, Explained →
- article processing charge (APC)
- fee paid by authors to publish, legitimately used in open-access journals Spotting Predatory Journals →
C
- CC BY
- Creative Commons Attribution licence; most permissive Open Access, Without the Jargon →
- CC BY-NC-SA
- CC licence restricting commercial use and requiring adaptations to share under same terms Open Textbooks, Explained →
- CC0
- Creative Commons public-domain waiver; no rights reserved Depositing Your Own Work →
- Chicago style
- citation system with notes-and-bibliography or author-date variants Citing Sources Properly →
- citation
- a formatted reference linking a claim to its source Citing Sources Properly →
- conflict of interest
- undisclosed relationship that could bias a researcher's findings How to Tell if a Source Is Credible →
- Creative Commons
- nonprofit licensing system enabling legal open sharing of creative work OER Basics →
- Creative Commons licence
- standardised open licence defining how content may be reused APCs & Funding, Explained →
- Crossref
- registration agency issuing DOIs for most scholarly journal articles The DOI, Explained →
D
- DataCite
- registration agency specialising in DOIs for research data and non-article outputs The DOI, Explained →
- Diamond OA
- publisher makes final paper free, no APC charged Open Access, Without the Jargon →
- diamond open access
- open publication with no author-facing fee Green, Gold & Diamond →
- Discussion
- section interpreting results and situating them in wider literature How to Read a Research Paper →
- DOAJ
- Directory of Open Access Journals; an index of vetted open-access journals How to Tell if a Source Is Credible →
- DOI
- short identifier string that permanently names a digital object The DOI, Explained →
- DOI resolver
- service that forwards a DOI to the content's current web address The DOI, Explained →
E
- editorial board
- panel of subject experts who oversee a journal's review process Spotting Predatory Journals →
- Embargo
- mandatory delay before a repository deposit goes public Open Access, Without the Jargon →
- embargo period
- delay before a paper can be legally shared openly Finding Free, Legal Copies →
F
- Five Rs
- Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix, Redistribute — framework for assessing openness of a resource OER Basics →
G
- Gold OA
- publisher makes final paper free, often via APC Open Access, Without the Jargon →
- gold open access
- immediate open publication via journal, often funded by APC Green, Gold & Diamond →
- Green OA
- author self-archives a copy in a repository Open Access, Without the Jargon →
- green open access
- self-archiving a version of a paper in a repository Green, Gold & Diamond →
- grey literature
- reports, theses, technical documents not published in conventional journals Institutional vs. Subject Repositories →
H
- hybrid journal
- subscription journal that sells individual open-access options Green, Gold & Diamond →
- Hybrid OA
- subscription journal with per-article APC option Open Access, Without the Jargon →
I
- institutional repository
- university-run archive collecting all research output from that organisation Institutional vs. Subject Repositories →
L
- link rot
- the tendency of web URLs to break over time The DOI, Explained →
M
- Mandate
- funder or institutional policy requiring open access Open Access, Without the Jargon →
- metadata
- structured descriptive information (author, title, date, keywords) attached to a record What a Digital Repository Actually Is →
- Methods
- section describing how the study was conducted How to Read a Research Paper →
- MLA
- Modern Language Association style; author-page in-text format Citing Sources Properly →
O
- OER
- openly licensed teaching or learning material anyone can use, adapt and share OER Basics →
- Open access
- research freely available online, without paywall Open Access, Without the Jargon →
- Open textbook
- full-length academic text released under an open licence, free to read and adapt Open Textbooks, Explained →
- ORCID
- persistent digital identifier distinguishing one researcher from another Depositing Your Own Work →
P
- peer review
- independent expert evaluation of research before publication How to Tell if a Source Is Credible →
- persistent identifier
- stable reference code (e.g. DOI) that keeps a record findable even if URLs change What a Digital Repository Actually Is →
- plagiarism
- using another's work or ideas without proper attribution Citing Sources Properly →
- predatory journal
- a fee-charging publication that skips or fakes peer review Spotting Predatory Journals →
- Preprint
- paper shared publicly before formal peer review Open Access, Without the Jargon →
R
- reference management software
- tools that store and format citations automatically Citing Sources Properly →
- registrant prefix
- the part of a DOI identifying the organisation that registered it The DOI, Explained →
- repository
- organised online archive for scholarly papers, datasets, theses and other research outputs What a Digital Repository Actually Is →
- retraction
- formal withdrawal of a published paper due to errors or misconduct How to Tell if a Source Is Credible →
S
- self-archiving
- author depositing their own work in a repository Finding Free, Legal Copies →
- subject repository
- discipline-wide archive open to any researcher in that field Institutional vs. Subject Repositories →
- submitted manuscript
- version sent to a journal before peer review Depositing Your Own Work →
T
- Transformative agreement
- institution-publisher deal shifting costs toward OA Open Access, Without the Jargon →
V
- Vancouver style
- numbered citation system common in medicine and life sciences Citing Sources Properly →
- Version of record
- final typeset, published paper Open Access, Without the Jargon →
- version-of-record
- final, typeset, publisher-formatted version of an article Finding Free, Legal Copies →
W
- waiver
- full or partial APC reduction for eligible authors APCs & Funding, Explained →