There are a few different ways that journal articles become open access:

1. Open Access Journals: Articles in OA journals are completely cost-free to access and read. But there are costs associated with publishing a journal, and OA journals need to cover these costs one way or another. Some OA journals rely on volunteer labor and institutional subsidies; some have grant funding; and some crowdsource support from libraries or other entities. But another common model is to charge author-facing fees, often called “article processing charges” (APCs). These fees move the paywall from readers to authors and privilege authors who have large research grants or are affiliated with well-resourced institutions that can pay these fees on authors’ behalf. Authors without access to such funds sometimes pay from their own pockets, but many cannot afford to do this and thus simply cannot publish in fee-charging journals. Clearly, these journal fees create and compound inequity among authors.
   
   That said, the existence of these fees is not in and of itself a red flag about journal quality. Indeed, many well-known, high-quality OA journals charge them. (And some subscription journals charge author-facing fees as well — e.g., page fees or illustration fees.) But, as mentioned above, some OA journals are essentially money-making scams, making it essential to thoughtfully evaluate any journal you’re thinking about submitting to.
   
   To discover OA journals, consult the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), which includes 20,000+ OA journals, all of which have been vetted for transparency and adherence to good publishing practices. Most journals in DOAJ do not charge author-facing fees, but most of the larger, better-known ones do, especially in the sciences.
   
   Interested in publishing with an OA journal that charges author-facing fees? At CUNY, many authors use their research grants to pay journal fees. Some campuses make some funds available to authors publishing in OA journals (e.g., John Jay College makes funds available via their Office for Advancement of Research), but many cannot. If you don’t have access to such funds, consider other, cost-free ways of making your articles OA, described below.
    
2. Journals That Let Authors Post Their Own Articles Online: While subscription-based journals keep the articles they publish locked behind paywalls, the vast majority of these journals allow authors to post (or “self-archive”) their own articles online. Article authors do not reap any financial reward from journal publishers’ paywalls, and the benefits they do see from publishing depend on others’ ability to find, read, and engage with their works. Therefore, many authors are eager to publicly share their articles online but unclear about the contours of what they are permitted to do, or where or how they can do it.
   
   Not surprisingly, different publishers have different policies regarding self-archiving. Some allow authors to self-archive the final, published version of the article. Others don’t but allow self-archiving of the accepted manuscript (i.e., the manuscript as it was accepted by the journal, after peer review and any required revisions, but before copy editing and formatting) and/or the submitted manuscript (i.e., the manuscript as it was originally submitted to the journal, before peer review). And some journals allow self-archiving to happen immediately, while others require a delay (“embargo”) after publication.
   
   To determine what a specific journal allows, carefully read its article publication contract (sometimes called the “author agreement” or “copyright transfer agreement”), or use the tool Open Policy Finder, which provides helpful distillations of most journals’ OA policies. (For information about where you can self-archive your articles, see Where Can You Share?)
    
3. Hybrid journals: Subscription-based journals that make individual articles OA in exchange for a fee are known as “hybrid journals.” They are not OA journals, but some articles in them are OA.
   
   As with OA journal fees, hybrid journals' fees are often paid with grant monies or institutional funds. Also, some CUNY campuses have so-called “read and publish” contracts with some publishers of hybrid journals. These contracts allow CUNY-authored articles to be published OA at no cost to the authors. Curious if your library has such a contract with a certain publisher? Ask your librarian!
   
   Interested in publishing in a hybrid journal without paying the OA fee? Most hybrid journals permit authors to make the submitted and/or accepted manuscript version of their article publicly available online. Read the contract or check Open Policy Finder to see what’s allowed.