• Open Access Overview: provides an introduction to OA for those new to the concept.

• How Open Is It?: outlines the core components of OA with the goal of helping authors make informed decisions on where to publish based on journal policies.

• CreateChange: suggests practical ways that OA can provide greater returns on your research. 

Why is open access publishing important?

The goal of open access is to improve upon the traditional scholarly publishing system by making research more accessible.  The time is ripe for improvement because of the convergence of four factors: 

1. Internet: the Internet offers the potential to maximize the visibility and impact of scholarly research.
2. Copyright: by protecting their copyrights authors can increase access their scholarship.
3. Costs:  the cost and the number of scholarly journals have escalated to the point where no single institution can afford to provide access to them all.
4. Funding Mandates: In February 2013, the White House issued a new policy directive that all major federal agencies require articles based on government funded research be made open access within 1 year of publication. This basically matches a National Institute of Health policy in effect since 2008.

How can I identify open access journals in my field?

The number and quality of OA journals is growing. Here are some resources to help you identify OA journals that you may want to consider as publishing outlets:

• Did you know that 9.5% (1,150 titles) of the journals covered by Web of Science are open access?
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is the primary source for tracking OA journals. The DOAJ currently lists over 8,000 journals.

• Three prominent OA publishers are: PLOS: Public Library of Science, BioMed Central, and Hindawi Publishing.

• If you cannot find appropriate OA journals in your field, why not start your own?  Check out the UB Libraries’ Publishing @UB page.

How do I judge the quality of open access journals?

OA journals typically adhere to the same quality standards established by traditional journals.  However, because many OA journals are new, it can be difficult to assess quality. Here are a few resources that can help:

• Journal Citation Reports: JCR (UB only): over 1,150 OA journals have already been assigned impact factors by Thompson ISI and are indexed in the Web of Science. 

• Many OA journals are also included in other journal ranking resources like:  SCImago Journal & Country Ranking, Eigenfactor.org, and Google Scholar Citations.

• Beall's List of Predatory Open Access Publishers:  this list uses various criteria to identify OA publishers that are deemed "predatory."

Publishing scholarly research is not without costs… how are those costs covered?

Open access publishers use a variety of methods to defray costs:

• Volunteer efforts: many OA publishers rely on the efforts of the research community – networks of scholars who volunteer their time to help publish OA journals in their fields. Open Humanities Press and Speleobiology Notes are two examples.

• Author fees: other OA publishers charge article processing charges (APC’s). These fees vary in cost and are often paid for using grant money or are paid by the author’s institution. PLOS Biology is an OA journal that relies on APC’s. 

• Alternative revenue streams: many OA journals are free to read online but they charge for advertisements, memberships, print versions, conferences.  The British Medical Journal is an OA journal that leverages a combination of these revenue streams.

How can the UB Libraries help with OA publishing?