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What is Open Access?
"Open access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions." - Peter Suber. A Very Brief Introduction to Open Access.
Open access refers to freely available, digital, online information. Open access scholarly literature is free of charge and often carries less restrictive copyright and licensing barriers than traditionally published works, for both the users and the authors.
While OA is a newer form of scholarly publishing, many OA journals comply with well-established peer-review processes and maintain high publishing standards. For more information, see Peter Suber's Overview of Open Access.
Open Access 101
Open Access 101, from SPARC from Karen Rustad on Vimeo.
SPARC is the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition.
Open Access Explained!
Oakland University Support for Open Access / Article Processing Charges
There are several resources available to help OUWB authors pay for APCs (article processing charges) in open access journals.
Foundational Medical Studies Open Access Publishing Fee Program
The purpose of the Foundational Medical Studies (FMS) Open Access (OA) Publishing Fee Program is to increase the opportunity for FMS faculty to publish in open access journals by supporting publication fees for peer-reviewed and accepted manuscripts in program-approved Open Access journals. Individual grant awards may be for up to $3000, paid directly to the OA journal publisher.
Oakland University Publisher Agreements
Some publishers offer special agreements that lower the open access publishing fee for authors. Currently, Oakland University has agreements with BioMed Central and Cambridge Open Access.
Resources for Evaluating Journals & Publishers
The Open Access (OA) publishing model has paved the way for global scholarly communication in allowing free, unlimited access to research without the barriers of publisher paywalls. However, when selecting journals to publish in, be mindful of sham OA journals that only "exist for the sole purpose of profit, not the dissemination of high-quality research findings and furtherance of knowledge" (Berger & Cirasella, 2015). These are known as predatory publishers and could impact your scholarly reputation, promotion and tenure, and institution.
To protect yourself and your work, just remember to thoroughly check your journal before submitting an article for publication. You can useCabell'sas a starting place to check and see if your journal is on the whitelist (legitimate) or blacklist (predatory).
Here are a few criteria that indicate it is a good OA journal:
Indexed in bibliometric databases, such as PubMed, Web of Science, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and others. You can cross check where a journal is indexed using Ulrich's Periodical Directory.
PubMed (MEDLINE) This link opens in a new window
MEDLINE is the National Library of Medicine's free bibliographic database covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the Arts & Humanities Index (A&HCI), Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Science Citation Index (SCI), and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). The database can be searched by words in article titles and abstracts, by author, by journal, and to look for cited references.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) This link opens in a new window
DOAJ is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.
UlrichsWeb This link opens in a new window
UlrichsWeb (Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory) contains subscription, publisher, ISSN and other information on active and ceased serials worldwide: magazines, journals, annuals and more.
Journal website is comprehensive and includes the following information:
- Editorial board information including member affiliations and emails (geographic location should be very distributed)
- Contact information including a mailing address that goes to a legit location; contact is not just a blank web form
- Description of article review process including peer-review
- No promises of instant or rapid publication
- Article processing fee is transparent and only required after acceptance of an article
For a complete list of criteria to use in assessing the quality of journals, check out the Medical Library's Checklist for Assessing Journal Authenticity and Think. Check. Submit, an online resource developed to raise awareness of predatory publishers and provide a means of assessing journal quality.
Checklist for Assessing Journal Authenticity
A complete list of criteria to use in assessing the quality of journals. Developed by the OUWB Medical Library.
Identify trusted publishers for your research.
Checklist for Submitting to a Journal / Think. Check. Submit.
This checklist is a tool that will help you discover what you need to know when assessing whether or not a publisher is suitable for your research. How can you be sure the journal you are considering is the right journal for your research?
Salient Features of Potential Predatory Journals:
- The scope of interest includes non-biomedical subjects alongside biomedical topics
- The website contains spelling and grammar errors
- Images are distorted/fuzzy, intended to look like something they are not, or which are unauthorized
- The homepage language targets authors
- The Index Copernicus Value [a bogus metric] is promoted on the website
- Description of the manuscript handling process is lacking
- Manuscripts are requested to be submitted via email
- Rapid publication is promised
- There is no retraction policy
- Information on whether and how journal content will be digitally preserved is absent
- The article processing/publication charge is very low (e.g., < $150 USD)
- Journals claiming to be open access either retain copyright of published research or fail to mention copyright
- The contact email address is non-professional and non-journal affiliated (e.g., @gmail.com or @yahoo.com)
Locating Open Access Journals & Books
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
Academic, peer reviewed books in published open access.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
A searchable directory of open access journals across all disciplines.
OpenDOAR is the searchable global Directory of Open Access Repositories.
Ulrich's Global Serials Directory
A comprehensive database of journal titles. Use the Advanced Search / Key Feature to limit your search results to open access titles.
This browser extension helps you find open access versions of articles by searching by title, DOI, URL, and more.
This browser extension looks for open access versions of published articles that have a DOI.
PubMed Central This link opens in a new window
PubMed Central is the U.S. National Institute of Health's free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.
Medical Library Resources for Open Access
The Deliverance of Open Access Books: Examining Usage and Dissemination by Snijder, RonaldISBN: 9789085551201
Publication Date: 2019
- Knowledge Unbound: Selected Writings on Open Access, 2002–2011 by Peter Suber; Robert Darnton
ISBN: 9780262528498
Publication Date: 2016
Open Access Medical Education Journals
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- Last Updated: May 31, 2024 11:37 AM
- URL: https://oakland.libguides.com/open-access
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Subjects: Medicine
Tags: Journals, Open Access, Predatory Journals, Publishing
