Writing for Publication: Open Access

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What is Open Access?

Open Access is a form of scientific publishing in which information is made available to readers at no cost. When publishing an article, there are different ways that providing open access to readers can be accomplished.

"Open Access stands for unrestricted access and unrestricted reuse. With Open Access, researchers can read and build on the findings of others without restriction. Much scientific and medical research is paid for with public funds. Open Access allows taxpayers to see the results of their investment. Open Access means that teachers and their students have access to the latest research findings throughout the world." Source: Public Library of Science.

Hybrid Gold Open Access

The final version of an article is freely and permanently accessible for everyone, immediately after publication.
Subscription fees are charged for the journal, but authors have the option to make their article accessible to all. Some articles in the journal which are not available via gold open access will only be accessible to subscribers.
Authors pay "article processing charges" or APCs to have their article published after peer review and acceptance.

Green Open Access

This the practice of placing a version of an author’s manuscript into a repository, making it freely accessible for everyone.
The version that can be deposited into a repository is dependent on the funder or publisher. It may be the author's final peer-reviewed, accepted manuscript that can be deposited or the final publisher's version.
There is usually an embargo period, meaning that the author's manuscript cannot be made freely accessible until after a certain period of time has elapsed (often 12 months).
No article processing charges are paid.

Open Access: The Good The Bad and the Ugly

What about author fees? The Eigenfactor Index of Open Access Fees compares author charges with the influence of the journal. Price doesn't always buy prestige in open access.

How open is it? A guide for evaluating the openness of journals. From SPARC. This guide provides a means to identify the core components of OA and how they are implemented across the spectrum between “Open Access” and “Closed Access”.

Chambers, A. (10 May, 2019). How I became easy prey. Science magazine.

"I was nursing my wounds from my latest manuscript rejection when the email arrived. I was about 2 years into my assistant professorship, with the tenure clock running at full speed, and the pressure to publish was immense....."

M. Pai and E, Franco (2016, October 4). What Are Predatory Open Access Journals And Why Should We Worry? Huffington Post Business Canada. (on predatory publisher OMICS buying Canadian medical journals)

Open Access Journals Generally Considered Reputable

This is a not an exhaustive list. The economics of open access publishing continue to evolve;

Note that article processing charges are not unique to open access publishing - reputable biomedical titles in particular have long used them for subscription journals. Long-established conventional journal publishers are expanding their reach into open access, with new titles, or moving old titles into open access, or hybrid titles with some articles open access and others behind a paywall.

Public Library of Science Founded in 2000 by Patrick O. Brown, Harold E. Varmus, & Michael Eisen. Megajournal PLOS ONE accepts original research in all scientific disciplines, including interdisciplinary research, negative results and replication studies – all vital parts of the scientific record.

Elsevier's Open Access journals (Authors pay article processing charges, access is free to readers). Heliyon is a completely open access megajournal from Elsevier that publishes robust research across all disciplines.

Ovid (R) Open Access Publishing in Wolters-Kluwer / Lippincott Journals

Springer's Open Access journals. (Authors pay article processing charges or their institutions pay membership fees, access is free to readers).

Wiley's Open Access journals.

Sage Open (megajournal) and other open access titles from Sage.

Nature Communications (megajournal) publishes high-quality papers from all areas of science that represent important advances within specific scientific disciplines, but that might not necessarily have the scientific reach of papers published in Nature and the Nature research journals.

Scientific Reports (megajournal) is an online, open access, unbranded journal from the publishers of Nature, which publishes primary research from all areas of the natural and clinical sciences.

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) Well monitored and curated list of reputable peer-reviewed open access journals.

CrossRef maintains a list of member journal titles for which it provides linking infrastructure services. The mission of this non-profit is "to enable easy identification and use of trustworthy electronic content". It is known to remove journals of dubious reputation from membership and thus from the list, so presence of a title on this list may be useful positive indicator.

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