Publishing Tips

What is Open Access publishing? 

• An open access journal is a scholarly journal that provides free and unrestricted access to its content. 

Benefits for readers:

• Free of charge - no cost to users
• Immediately available upon publication - no delay (embargo) to access online research (or other materials)
• Generous or "open" copyright usage - often provides right to reuse the work, copy it, adapt it, or distribute it 

Purpose:

• Promote access to knowledge, foster collaboration, accelerate scientific progress, and encourage greater public engagement with research
• Overcome barriers of traditional publishing models where access is often restricted to subscribers of academic journals or institutions with high subscription costs
  • Funders (including American taxpayers) invest in research to advance human knowledge and ultimately improve lives. Open Access increases the return on that investment by ensuring the results of the research they fund can be read and built on by anyone (SPARC) 

About OA Fees:

• Common misconception that open access fees are "pay to publish" - this is not the case
• Traditional journals cover publishing costs through subscriptions or pay-per-view charges (i.e., the reader pays) vs OA journal costs are covered through author fees, public funding, or sponsorships
• OA author fees (processing fees) can be very pricey - however, fee amounts do not mean a journal is not legitimate (see the explanation for a predatory/unethical journal below)

Why publish using the open access model?

• Increased citation and usage - readers can easily access your research
• Creates increased visibility, wider readership, and enhanced research impact
• Compliance with funder mandates
  • research funders have already paid for the research, they should not have to pay to obtain the results (i.e. through journal subscriptions or pay-to-view costs)
• You maintain copyright control over your work
  • when authors sign the Author Agreement under traditional publishing models, they are signing away the copyright to their work

Hymenopus coronatus (Orchid Mantis) by Total Kamoki (License CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

What is a predatory publisher or predatory journal (aka fraudulent, deceptive, or pseudo-journals)?

• exploitative academic publishing business model that involves charging publication fees to authors without checking articles for quality and legitimacy, and without providing editorial and publishing services that legitimate academic journals provide. (Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_publishing)