Open Access Publishing: Selecting OA journals
Identifying OA journals in your 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:
- Web of ScienceWeb of Science indexes 5,000 OA journals. Currently it provides citations to 11.9 million articles with OA versions.
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)The DOAJ is the primary source for tracking OA journals and currently lists over 12,000 journals from 129 countries.
- Open Journal Matcher"This tool matches a draft abstract with the best-matching open access journals. Find somewhere to submit your work by pasting your abstract..."
Some prominent OA publishers include:
- Public Library of Science (PLOS)Based in the United States, "PLOS was founded as a nonprofit Open Access publisher, innovator and advocacy organization with a mission to advance progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication."
- BioMed Central (BMC)Based in the United Kingdom, BMC is part of Springer Nature and publishes over 250 scientific journals.
- HindawiBased in Cairo and London, "Hindawi publishes peer-reviewed, Open Access journals across many areas of science, technology, and medicine, as well as several areas of social science. Hindawi’s journals are indexed in the leading abstracting and indexing databases, including the Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, INSPEC, Mathematical Reviews, and Chemical Abstracts."
- Open Humanities Press (OHP)Based in London, "OHP is an international community of scholars, editors and readers with a focus on critical and cultural theory. We have operated as a independent volunteer initiative since 2006, promoting open access scholarship in journals, books and exploring new forms of scholarly communication."
Determining the quality of OA journals
Many OA journals typically adhere to the same quality and peer review standards established by traditional journals. However, because many OA journals are new, it can be difficult to assess quality. Unfortunately, there have been some startups engaging in unethical practices, including listing editorial board members without their permission and doing little, if any, peer review. If you have any questions about the reputation of a journal, please contact your departmental (subject specialist) librarian. Here are a few resources that can help:
- Journal Citation ReportsOver 1,150 OA journals have already been assigned impact factors and are indexed in the Web of Science.
- SCImago Journal & Country Rank"The 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.)."
- Open Access Journal Quality IndicatorsGrand Valley State University has developed a very helpful list of quality indicators and briefly explains the three OA publishing models. If you use this resource, realize that no single positive or negative indicator determines whether a journal is reputable.