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Open Access

This guide will provide recommendations and assistance in finding information about Open Access.
Finding Publishers' Open Access Policies

Sherpa Romeo is a tool that helps you determine whether a publisher will allow you to make your publication openly available. If you signed an author's contract with a publisher you may have signed over your rights. You can check if the publisher will allow you to make a version of it available. Sherpa Romeo is an online resource that aggregates and analyses publisher open access policies from around the world and provides summaries of publisher copyright and open access archiving policies on a journal-by-journal basis.

Evaluating Journals for Quality

It is important for scholars to determine the quality and reputation of the journals to which they submit their work for publication.  Just as with subscription journals, there are unscrupulous OA publishers who spam scholars via email with tempting offers to submit journal articles and/or serve on editorial boards. Read more. Read more about how to find out if you've been contacted by a predatory publisher in this article from Nature.

OA publishing has undergone rapid growth in recent years, and in many cases OA publishers may be unfamiliar to scholars. OA journals should be judged by exactly the same criteria as any traditional publication, with a few additional considerations. Below are criteria for evaluating a specific journal, as well as links to organizations that evaluate publishers and journals.

Journal Criteria

  1. Caliber of the research published. Read over a few articles to assess the quality.
  2. Peer review process as described on the journal's website. Consider contacting published authors about their experience.
  3. Composition of the editorial board and staff. Are editors recognized experts, and are their affiliations provided?
  4. Ease of finding contact information for the publisher, including a street address and phone number (not just a contact form). Caution that some unscrupulous publishers include a fake address or an address for a private home to deceive readers
  5. Metrics of quality for the journal (i.e. impact factors, article-level metrics, or other trusted measures).
  6. OA journals: Transparency of journal's policy on charging for OA publication, and the amount of the charges.
  7. Copyright ownership for published content. Beware of open access journals that require all copyrights to be transferred to the publisher. True OA means the author retains their copyright via a Creative Commons or comparable license.

See this checklist from Think.Check.Submit. for other factors to consider.

Appraisal by the Industry

There are many organizations that vet individual journals and publishers, which may help authors assess legitimacy.
While exclusion from any of these services does not necessarily mean that a publisher is not reputable, authors may consider:

  1. Is the journal indexed in PubMedWeb of ScienceScopus, or other literature indexes in your field?
  2. Is the journal or publisher a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)?
  3. Does the journal have an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)?
  4. Does the journal have an impact factorSNIPSJR, or eigenfactor ranking? Beware of unrecognized ranking systems, often designed to mimic existing metrics. See a compiled list of Misleading Metrics.

Additionally, if it's open access:

  1. Is the journal included in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) or the Directory of OA Scholarly Resources (ROAD)?
  2. Is the publisher a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)?
  3. Has the publication been evaluated by scholars in the Quality Open Access Market?
  4. Is the publisher or journal included on Beall's list of OA publishers with questionable business and peer review practices? (use the search box to find investigations into specific publishers or journal titles)

This section was created using resources from University of California San Francisco, Florida International University and Emory University.

Journal Selection Tools
Resources for Vetting Journals

Predatory Publishers

What is a Predatory Publisher?

Predatory or deceptive publishing are terms describing publishers or entities that exploit authors by charging publication fees (commonly known as article processing charges) yet don’t deliver on their promise of the editorial and publishing services (such as peer review) that are associated with legitimate publishers. Deceptive publishers typically prey on a researcher’s need to publish in order to get an academic appointment, gain promotion, or achieve tenure.

These publishers often engage in deceptive and unethical business practices and make false claims about a journal’s impact factor, indexing, high standards, and peer review.

Why You Should Avoid Predatory Journals

  • Your work may be subject to second-rate peer review
  • Your work could disappear if the publisher goes out of business
  • Predatory journals are not usually indexed in academic databases, thus decreasing the readership and impact of your work
  • Predatory or deceptive journals may serve as an outlet for plagiarized material or fabricated results
  • The journal's bad reputation may be extended to the authors, their institutions, or even the entire field or discipline
  • Your research may be disregarded
  • It could be a waste of research funding
  • You might be held accountable by funding agencies or your institution
  • It undermines the public trust in academic discourse

Why Do Authors Publish in a Predatory Journal?

Authors generally don't want to be exploited by an online scam, but it can happen if an author is:

  • Unfamiliar with the journal’s field
  • New to research/publishing in general
  • Feels pressure to publish (for Tenure, Promotion, and Retention considerations)
  • Feels pressure to publish quickly

Ways to Identify Predatory Journals

  • Rapid publication is promised
  • The homepage language targets authors
  • The journal does not have clear policies on retraction, corrections/errata, or plagiarism (see the ICMJE Recommendations for more detailed discussion about best practices)
  • Description of the manuscript handling process is lacking
  • The contact email address is non-professional and non-journal-related
  • Manuscripts are requested to be submitted by email instead of through an online submission system
  • Journals claiming to be open access either retain copyright of published research or fail to mention copyright
  • Article processing and/or publication charge is very low (e.g. < $150)
  • Information on whether and how journal content will be archived and preserved is absent
  • Scope of journal is not clear
  • Website contains spelling and grammatical errors

(Adapted from Shamseer, L., Moher, D., Maduekwe, O., Turner, L., Barbour, V., Burch, R., Clark, J., Galipeau, J., Roberts, J., & Shea, B.J. (2017). Potential predatory and legitimate biomedical journals: can you tell the difference? A cross-sectional comparison. BMC Medicine 15(1) 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-017-0785-9.)

Other Red Flags

  • No ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)
  • Not indexed by MEDLINE, Scopus, PsycINFO, Web of Science, or other legitimate abstracting or indexing services or databases
  • Journal title mirrors the title of an established journal with one or two words being different
  • Journal is not published by a reputable or known publisher
  • Journal sends unsolicited email invitations for submissions, reviewers, or to serve on its editorial board
  • Looks like a trade journal, not a scholarly journal
  • Advertising is accepted
  • Aggressive tactics
  • Inaccurate statements
  • Misleading or suspicious peer-review processes

Quality Indicators for Open Access Journals

The following are positive indicators that a journal or publisher is not predatory:

  • Scope of the journal is well-defined and clearly stated
  • Journal’s primary audience is researchers/practitioners
  • Editor, editorial board are recognized experts in the field
  • Journal is affiliated with or sponsored by an established scholarly society or academic institution
  • Articles are within the scope of the journal and meet the standards of the discipline
  • Any fees or charges for publishing in the journal are easily found on the journal web site and clearly explained
  • Articles have DOIs
  • Journal clearly indicates rights for use and re-use of content at article level (e.g., Creative Commons CC BY license)
  • Journal has an ISSN (check the validity of the ISSN using ISSN Portal)
  • Publisher is a member of Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association
  • Journal is registered in UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory
  • Journal is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Journal is included in legitimate abstracting or indexing services or databases (such as MEDLINE, Scopus, PsycINFO, Web of Science)

Before You Submit

Ask the following:

 

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