Insights: What is Zero Embargo Green Open Access?
On May 23, 2025
Once you submit a paper to a journal, it may take several weeks or even months to get it published once it is accepted. Then, even after it is published, your article might sit behind a paywall, accessible only to those with journal subscriptions. However, as a researcher, you may wish to have your paper accessible to everyone, or you may be sharing an important insight that is time-sensitive and want it to be available as soon as possible. Zero Embargo Green Open Access could be the answer for you.
Zero Embargo Green OA is a publishing model that lets you make your research freely available to everyone immediately by depositing a version of your article in an institutional or subject repository. The important thing to note here is “zero embargo,” meaning there is no waiting period before your work can be shared openly.
The paper you will upload is the manuscript that has been accepted by a journal in its final version before the publisher does their in-house styling and formatting. You can share the paper in a repository the moment it is accepted. In this way, your work is accessible to researchers, students, policymakers, or curious readers even if they cannot access the journal’s official version.
Zero Embargo Green OA offers several benefits, including:
- You do not need to choose between traditional publishing in a journal and sharing your work freely; you can do both
- You will reach a wider audience, which could lead to more citations and more real-world impact. By removing barriers to access, your work has a better shot at influencing future research or policy.
- By making your research freely available, you help support researchers in lower-resourced institutions or countries who may not have access to expensive subscriptions. It promotes a more inclusive, equitable research ecosystem.
- Institutional and subject repositories are often designed for long-term archiving. So even if a journal website goes down or changes policies, your manuscript will still be available in a stable location.
- If you are a researcher in a fast-moving field, like public health, climate science, or tech, timely access to new research can make a real difference.
While this method of sharing research is valuable and greatly improves accessibility, there are a few things you need to be aware of and keep in mind.
Some publishers do not permit immediate self-archiving or impose embargo periods, especially on the version of the manuscript you would like to share. That means you may be limited in where you can submit if you want to do zero embargo. Additionally, some publishers push back against authors’ rights retention strategies, which you need if you want to share your research freely, arguing that it undermines their business models.
Since you will be sharing the accepted version of your articles and not the final version with the publisher’s formatting, typesetting, and branding, some readers may prefer or expect the final polished version, and having two versions around can cause confusion.
Despite these challenges, Zero Embargo Green OA is a revolutionary model of knowledge sharing that has real-world positive impacts by promoting the timely sharing of valuable research.