Question

What is Platinum Open Access?

Comments

Usually it's not so much about specific definitions, mostly what circles you're in. The "platinum open access" folks seem unconcerned about freedom (copyright-wise), as I see journals like https://epistemehealth.com/index.php/nab/about which allow unfree licenses like CC-BY-NC. If so, it seems the self-described platinum OA journals may be subject to corporate capture.

Answer 1

"Platinum OA" basically means that the publication is openly available to readers from the publisher's site (just as in Gold OA) and that no fees have to be paid on the side of the authors (just as in "Green OA").

Sometimes, "Diamond OA" has been used for the same concept, but this may cause confusion in some who may think that there's a fundamental difference between "Gold OA" and "Diamond OA", just like Gold and diamonds are different materials. "Platinum" avoids that by sticking to metals and implying that "Platinum OA" is more precious, more desirable or otherwise better than "Gold OA".

Another term that is sometimes used is "Universal Access", or "Universal OA", but this again may lead to confusion in terms of what the universality is referring to.

Answer 2

Looking for a definition, this is the best I could find (from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Open_access_journal&oldid=762198637):

Some open access journals are subsidized and are financed by an academic institution, learned society or a government information center. Others are financed by payment of article processing charges by submitting authors, money typically made available to researchers by their institution or funding agency.^[2] Sometimes these two are referred to respectively as "gold" and "platinum" models to emphasize their distinction,^[3][4] although other times "gold" OA is used to refer to both paid and unpaid OA.^[5]

There must a better definition.