A brief note on gold and green publication models
“Gold open access: refers to work that is immediately available free of charge at the site of publication to any member of the public. Post-Finch it is commonly taken to mean that such access is supported by author-side article processing charges (APCs) …” (Vincent & Wickham, 2013, p. 121). In general terms the “Article Processing/Publishing Charge” means an author, upon the acceptance of a piece of work, is required to pay a fee for publication. “Pure Gold” open access journals are not subscription based and only charge an APC as a means of recouping costs (Business, Innovation and Skills Committee Open Access. Fifth Report of Session 2013-14, 2013, p. 3)
“Green open access: refers to work that is made publicly available in a repository, institutional or subject-based, after an embargo period. Variants of Green open access depend on whether what is made available after the embargo period is the author’s final submitted text (or ‘pre-print’) or the article in its post-refereed form (or ‘post-print’).” (Vincent & Wickham, 2013, p. 121)
Comparative Pedagogy
While I cannot say for sure, I would venture a guess that this particular journal lies fairly squarely in the for-profit category of the open-access world, rather than in trying to ensure that legitimate research is highly available to interested parties.
International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
The lower acceptance rate of this journal, along with the more stringent peer review process, lends it credibility. As does the knowledge that it is a joint publication worked on by the International Society for Exploring Teaching and Learning, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and the Center for Instructional Development and Educational Research. The latter being Virginia Tech's own CIDER program. If I were to propose something for open access within my field, this would be my journal of choice.