Open access
Open access journals: an overview
Open Access is a departure from traditional publishing models that allows for the distribution of content to online readers for free by altering the financial and operational model. Open Access journals are able to eliminate online subscription costs by either front-loading costs through article processing fees to authors, or by supporting their operations through sponsorship, advertising, and use of voluntary labor, or by underwriting online costs by selling subscriptions to the printed form of the journal.
A few of our faculty share their experience with open access journals, below.
David Aucoin discusses Open Access Publishing. Audio file. Text transcript.
Kristine Galek discusses Open Access Publishing. Audio file. Text transcript.
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NIH Open Access PolicyTo advance science and improve human health, NIH makes the peer-reviewed articles it funds publicly available on PubMed Central. The NIH public access policy requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to PubMed Central immediately upon acceptance for publication. This site guides you through the compliance process.
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NIH Manuscript Submission SystemThis provides a direct link to the NIH Open Access submission system.
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DOAJ Directory of Open Access JournalsDOAJ is an online directory that indexes and provides access to high-quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.
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Fee structures and comparisons of Open Access ModelsFrom SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition.
Are you receiving unsolicited emails inviting you to submit manuscripts like the one below? Don't fall prey to schemes from predatory publishers. If you have questions about the legitimacy of a journal or publisher, give us a call.
Tips on identifying and avoiding predatory publishers
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World Association of Medical EditorsThis WAME document aims to provide guidance to help editors, researchers, funders, academic institutions and other stakeholders distinguish predatory journals from legitimate journals.
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Scimago Journal Impact FactorsThe Scimago Journal & Country Rank is a publicly available portal that includes the journals and country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in the Scopus® database (Elsevier B.V.). These indicators can be used to assess and analyze scientific domains. Journals can be compared or analyzed separately.
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Sherpa / RomeoSHERPA RoMEO is an online resource that aggregates and analyses publisher open access policies from around the world and provides summaries of self-archiving permissions and conditions of rights given to authors on a journal-by-journal basis.
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COPE - Committee on Publication EthicsCOPE provides advice to editors and publishers on all aspects of publication ethics and, in particular, how to handle cases of research and publication misconduct. It also provides a forum for its members to discuss individual cases. COPE does not investigate individual cases but encourages editors to ensure that cases are investigated by the appropriate authorities (usually a research institution or employer).
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Potential predatory and legitimate biomedical journals: can you tell the difference? A cross-sectional comparisonThis article in BMC Medicine provides a very thorough examination of predatory journals and an extensive set of criteria to apply in evaluating the credibility of a journal or publisher.