INFORMS Open Option

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Policy

INFORMS recognizes open access (OA) as the unrestricted public access to, and reuse of, data and manuscripts peer reviewed and accepted on behalf of any of the association’s publications. As a publisher, INFORMS understands that an author may be required or wish to publish his or her manuscript as open access and with alternative copyright restrictions. As part of its efforts to support open access, INFORMS provides both “green” and “gold” open access options to its authors.

Green Option: Authors may post their author accepted manuscript (AAM) on personal websites, scholarly collaboration networks, or noncommercial institutional repositories immediately after acceptance (i.e., without embargo). Posted AAMs must include the DOI (permalink) provided by INFORMS to the final published version of record. Authors may not post their final published version of record except where authorized under an INFORMS Open Option open access publication license as detailed below.

Gold Option: INFORMS Open Option (IOO) provides an open access alternative for articles accepted for publication in any INFORMS journal that would have otherwise only been available through subscriptions or pay per view. Authors of an accepted manuscript who would like to take advantage of IOO would be responsible for a one-time publication fee of $3,000, which will ensure that the article is made available to anyone online via INFORMS PubsOnline for free and in perpetuity and that copyright of the article remains with the author(s).

While authors may be asked to indicate whether they intend to select INFORMS Open Option during submission, the author’s decision in this regard will have no impact on any aspect of the peer-review process or on an editor’s ultimate decision regarding publication. Authors will not be invoiced for their IOO publication fee until after a manuscript has been accepted for publication, and their IOO fee must be remitted to INFORMS prior to publication.

Authors selecting to publish their articles under INFORMS Open Option remain responsible for adhering to INFORMS copyright and permissions policies (/authorportal/copyright-plagiarism), including but not limited to:

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication: Authors must attest that their manuscript has not been published, accepted for publication, or submitted for publication elsewhere, nor will be for the duration of its consideration for publication in the journal to which the work has been submitted. IOO submission does not negate this policy, violation of which is considered a breach of publishing ethics and is subject to penalties and sanctions.
Related Works: Authors must disclose (in their cover letter and in any related submission questions) all of their work (e.g., prior publications, conference proceedings, book chapters, papers submitted to other journals, thesis/dissertations) having substantial overlap with any portion of the submitted manuscript.
Proper Citation: Authors must properly cite any and all previous work authored by themselves, their co-authors, or others, in English or any other language, that is significantly related to the submitted work.
Reproduction of Previously Published Materials: Authors must ensure that they have acquired permission to republish any and all previously published portions of their submitted work for which copyright is now held by a party other than the author. All previously published material that is copyrighted by another party must be clearly noted in the article to ensure that the open access status of the submitted article is not mistakenly implied to extend to the republished copyrighted work.

Procedure

Authors who have opted to take advantage of IOO will complete a publications license in lieu of a traditional copyright transfer agreement, which extends to INFORMS a non-exclusive, non-revocable license to publish the work in the selected journal and in any other publications of, arranged by, or licensed by INFORMS, under the terms of the Creative Commons license of the authors’ choosing. A complete list of Creative Commons licenses is included below. By granting this license, the authors agree and allow redistribution of the work by INFORMS in paper-based and electronic formats, as well as digital document-delivery services and databases. INFORMS will ensure that the article bears the Creative Commons license mark in all published versions.

Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons defines six licenses designating different level of acceptable reuse of an author’s intellectual property. A full description of all six Creative Commons licenses can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/. A plain-language summary of each license follows:

CC-BY (Attribution): Allows users to distribute, edit, adapt, and build on the material, as long as attribution is given to the author. Can be used commercially.
CC-BY-SA (Attribution-Share Alike): Allows users to distribute, edit, adapt, and build on the material, as long as attribution is given to the author. Can be used commercially, but any adaptations must be licensed under the same terms as the original license.
CC-BY-NC (Attribution-Noncommercial): Allows users to distribute, edit, adapt, and build on the material but only for noncommercial purposes and only as long as the creator is attributed.
CC-BY-NC-SA (Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike): Allows users to distribute, edit, adapt, and build on the material but only for noncommercial purposes and only as long as the creator is attributed. If that material is adapted, edited, or built upon then the resulting material must be licensed under the same terms as the original license.
CC-BY-ND (Attribution-No Derivatives): Allows users to copy and distribute the material in unadapted format only, and attribution must be given to the creator. Can be used commercially.
CC-BY-NC-ND (Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivatives: Allows users to copy and distribute the material in unadapted format only, and attribution must be given to the creator. Cannot be used commercially.

Authors are advised to confirm with their funder any license requirements for work resulting from their funding.

Submitting to PubMed Central

Since no INFORMS journal publishes exclusively in the healthcare literature, INFORMS is unable at this time to offer automatic delivery of articles into PubMed Central (PMC) resulting from funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) as required under NIH Public Access Policy. Authors are directed to follow Method C to deposit their final peer-reviewed manuscript into the NIH Manuscript Submission system. For more information, see https://sharing.nih.gov/public-access-policy/reporting-publications-to-nih/submitting-papers-through-the-nihms-methods-c-and-d-best-practices.

Publication Licenses

Click on the publication title below to download its corresponding publication license. Publication Licenses may be digitally signed using Adobe Acrobat Reader .

Journals

Book Series

Tutorials in Operations Research

INFORMS Open Option FAQs

I am considering submitting a paper to an INFORMS journal and would like it published open access if accepted. When should I start planning for this?
While authors may be asked to indicate whether they intend to select INFORMS Open Option (IOO) during submission and at submission of each subsequent revision, the peer-review process is not related to IOO and the authors may modify their selection at any time prior to publication. The selection of IOO will have no impact on any aspect of the peer-review process or on an editor’s ultimate decision regarding publication. Once the peer-review process is complete and the submitted paper is accepted by one of our journals, the submitting author will be asked to confirm their IOO selection (including license preference), following which the INFORMS Publications office will prepare and distribute an IOO invoice. The IOO fee must be paid before the article can be published open access.

Can I share the IOO fee with my coauthors?
Yes, INFORMS is happy to separately invoice you and your co-authors for portions of your IOO fee. However, please note that all IOO invoices related to an accepted submission must be paid before your article can be published open access.

My institution or employer will be paying for my IOO fee. Can you invoice them directly?
Yes, INFORMS is happy to invoice your institution or employer for your IOO fee. If someone other than yourself will be responsible for paying your IOO fee, please provide us with contact information for the responsible party so that we may invoice them directly. The IOO fee must be paid before the article can be published open access.

My paper was already accepted and has been published in Articles in Advance or in an issue. Is it too late to take advantage of IOO?
No, it is not too late to choose IOO, but the process will be different in two important ways. First, since the author(s) of any previously published articles had already transferred copyright to INFORMS prior to publication, it is impractical for INFORMS to initiate a revised copyright transfer agreement officially returning copyright to the authors. However, INFORMS agrees to forego any copyright enforcement activity on all papers that have received retroactive IOO. Second, since there have been multiple changes and advancements in production processes and vendors over the course of INFORMS’ publishing history, it is impractical for INFORMS to update the typeset version of any paper receiving retroactive IOO to remove the INFORMS copyright statement and replace with notice that the copyright has reverted to the authors. For any article receiving retroactive IOO, INFORMS will update the article’s metadata to reflect the article’s new open access status, which will ensure the article is freely accessible worldwide, is highlighted with the orange unlocked Open Access logo on PubsOnline, and the dynamically created article PDF cover sheet accurately displays the article’s revised copyright status [as Copyright © [Copyright YEAR] The Author(s)] and reuse (Creative Commons) license when downloaded from PubsOnline. To apply for IOO after publication, please contact [email protected].

My funder requires my article to be covered by the CC-BY license. Will participating in INFORMS Open Option do that?
INFORMS Open Option (IOO) allows authors choosing to publish their work open access to select any one of the six Creative Commons licenses defining acceptable reuse of their published work. If your funder requires you to select CC-BY, you may select this option on your publications license. Because CC-BY allows for commercial distribution and reuse of an article, not all authors are in favor of it — authors are advised to confirm with their funder any license requirements for work resulting from their funding, and to resolve any concerns about allowable reuse directly with their funder. Authors will be provided the opportunity to select IOO at submission and at submission of each subsequent revision. Once an author’s paper is accepted, the submitting author will be asked to confirm their IOO selection (including license preference), following which the INFORMS Publications office will prepare and distribute an IOO invoice. The selected Creative Commons license’s explanation will be added to the first page of the typeset article and noted in a machine-readable format within the article’s metadata.

I can’t afford IOO, but my funder still requires me to make the article open access. What are my options?
Authors automatically retain the right to post their author accepted manuscript (AAM) on personal websites, scholarly collaboration networks, or noncommercial institutional repositories immediately after acceptance (i.e., without embargo). [This type of self-archiving is generally referred to as “green” open access.] Posted AAMs must include the DOI (permalink) provided by INFORMS to the final published version of record. Authors may not post their final published version of record except where authorized under an INFORMS Open Option (IOO) open access publication license. [IOO equates to “gold” open access.] Some funders may require the self-archived version to be made available under a specific Creative Commons license (for example, UKRI, Wellcome, and NIHR require the AAM to be made available under a CC-BY license no later than the date of first online publication). Authors are strongly encouraged to review their funder’s requirements to ensure compliance when posting their AAM. Visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ for a complete list of Creative Commons licenses and what they allow.

My research is funded by NIH, will INFORMS deposit my published article?
Since no INFORMS journal publishes exclusively in the healthcare literature, INFORMS is unable at this time to offer automatic delivery of articles into PubMed Central (PMC) resulting from funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) as required under NIH Public Access Policy. Authors are directed to follow Method C to deposit their final peer-reviewed manuscript into the NIH Manuscript Submission system. For more information, see https://sharing.nih.gov/public-access-policy/reporting-publications-to-nih/submitting-papers-through-the-nihms-methods-c-and-d-best-practices.

Contact

For more information on INFORMS Open Option, please contact [email protected].