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Open access policies

Green Open Access policy for books

Funders and other organisations often require the research they fund to be made freely available online, or ‘open access’. The best way to ensure maximum openness and re-usability of your book’s content is to publish it as Gold Open Access; see our open access FAQs for more about this.

For books that are not published Gold OA, our Green Open Access policy provides another way for authors to comply with funders’ open access requirements, by allowing authors to make a limited number of chapters from their books publicly accessible online.

Please note:
  • This policy replaces all previous Green Open Access policies, and the terms of this policy apply to all books retrospectively.
  • This Green OA policy applies only to monographs. This policy does not apply to textbooks, professional books for practitioners, or works of reference, no part of which may be posted online without our prior approval.
  • We support responsible social sharing of content 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; please see our Rights and Permissions FAQs  for details.

Terms and definitions

We use the following terms and definitions in this policy:

Types of publication:
  • Monograph: A book, typically but not always by a single author, which is an output of a research programme and which includes the findings of the research.
  • Preprint: An early version of a monograph created prior to the version submitted for publication. Theses and dissertations are considered to be preprints. See our full policy on preprints.
  • Submitted Manuscript Under Review (SMUR): Any version of the monograph that is under formal review for publication.
  • Accepted Manuscript (AM): The version of the monograph that has been accepted for publication by Cambridge University Press. A manuscript is considered accepted when the author is contacted by a content manager to begin the production process. This version may include revisions resulting from peer review but may be subject to further modification by Cambridge University Press (for example, copy editing and typesetting).
  • Version of Record (VoR): The version that is formally published. 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 and the activities of, an institute or department, at all times operating for a non-commercial purpose.
  • Non-commercial or subject repository: Web pages hosted by an organisation to provide access to the work from researchers working in a subject or range of subjects, at all times operating for a non-commercial purpose. Examples: arXiv.org
  • 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

Preprint
  • Re-use licence: Any licence (including Creative Commons)
  • Personal web page: Entire manuscript, at any time
  • Department, institutional, or non-commercial subject repository: Entire manuscript, at any time
  • Commercial repository or social media site: Entire manuscript, at any time
SMUR
  • Re-use licence: Same as publishing agreement
  • Personal web page: Entire manuscript, at any time
  • Department, institutional, or non-commercial subject repository: Entire manuscript, at any time
  • Commercial repository or social media site: Entire manuscript, at any time
Accepted Manuscript (AM)
  • Re-use licence: Same as publishing agreement
  • Personal web page: One chapter, six months after publication
  • Department, institutional, or non-commercial subject repository: One chapter, six months after publication
  • Commercial repository or social media site: One chapter, six months after publication
Version of Record (VoR)
  • Re-use licence: Same as publishing agreement
  • Personal web page: One chapter, six months after publication
  • Department, institutional, or non-commercial subject repository: One chapter, six months after publication
  • Commercial repository or social media site: One chapter, six months after publication

Further policy details

Multiple authors and edited collections

For monographs with multiple authors, each contributor may make accessible a single chapter they have authored.

Closed deposits and embargo periods

As shown in the table above, our standard policy has a six-month embargo period after publication, before authors can make any chapters of an Accepted Manuscript or Version of Record publicly accessible. However, authors may deposit chapters in repositories before the end of this embargo period provided the content is not publicly accessible. This is sometimes referred to as ‘closed deposit’.

Metadata about the chapter (for example the book title, ISBN and so on) can be made public as soon as the monograph has been published on Cambridge Core. The full text of the chapter must not be made public before the embargo ends.

The embargo period starts from the date the Version of Record is first published online.

Licences authors can use

Authors may make preprints publicly accessible under any licence terms they choose. We recommend a Creative Commons CC-BY or other CC licence.

Other versions of the manuscript should not be made available under a Creative Commons licence or other licence that allows free reproduction of content. When a monograph is contracted under standard publishing terms (rather than as Gold Open Access), any reproduction or re-use of the monograph’s content is governed by our usual licence restrictions, even if it has been made publicly accessible under this Green OA policy. That is, this policy allows authors to make content free to access and read, but not free to reproduce.

Posting chapters on websites

When posting chapters online, we require:

  • If the monograph has not yet been published, a clear statement that the material has been accepted for publication in a revised form by Cambridge University Press.
    • If the forthcoming monograph’s website is available on Cambridge Core, a link to the DOI or URL for this.
    • Once the monograph’s Version of Record is published, authors should update any versions they have made publicly accessible elsewhere with a DOI-based link to Cambridge Core.
  • For all works that have already been published on Cambridge Core, a link to the monograph’s Version of Record on Cambridge Core with a DOI-based link.
  • A clear statement about the licence terms under which the posted content is made publicly accessible.

Example statements are:

  • This material has been accepted for publication by Cambridge University Press, and a revised form will be published in [Title] by/edited by [Author / Editor] [http://doi.org/XXX, if available]. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution or re-use. © copyright holder.
  • This material has been published in revised form in [Title] by/edited by [Author / Editor] [https://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.