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Open Access Toolkit

Use this guide to learn more about Open Access publications, funding, metrics, etc.

Locating Open Access Journals using Whitelists


Open Access Journals are scholarly journals that make journal content openly available for viewing without charge.  In so doing, they maintain the editorial and reviewing criteria important to scholarly publications.  

Open Access Journals are often divided into several categories:  

  • Gold Open Access Journals where All Articles are made available to read for free but Authors pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) to have their research published.
  • Platinum Open Access Journals where All Articles are made available to read for free and Authors DO NOT pay Article Processing Charges
  • Hybrid Journals; that make specific articles available for free IF a researcher pays the journal an Article Processing Charge.

Gold, Platinum and Open Access articles in Hybrid Journals are all acceptable for the purposes of fulfilling funding agencies Open Access Mandates.  You can use the following tools to locate these journals:

Directory of Open Access Journals  has a listing of over 13,000 Open Access Publications that meet DOAJ criteria for inclusion.  The publications listed can be Browsed by Subject Area or Searched. Over 10,000 journals can be searched at the article level via DOAJ.  Other searching is by the name of a journal.  Great tool for locating OA journals publishing research in your field. 

Searchable by Article, Journal Title.  Provides Impact Factors, whether or not a Journal is Open Access, and speed. Searches over 46,000 journals located via Pubmed and major Indices/Abstracts. List Indices each journal is cited in, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) provided.

Eliminating Predatory Journals


Predatory Journals are publications that promise you that they are scholarly but fail to meet the editorial and review criteria that distinguish scholarly publications from vanity publishers.  Many have written about how to ascertain if a publication is predatory.  There are also some tools you can use to determine if a journal is predatory:  

JURN searches Open Access Journals, Books and Theses.  It also lays claim to eliminating Predatory Publishers from its search.

This Blacklist Identifies publications that lay claim to being OA but whose practices tend to be suspect.
 

Assessing Journals for Publication 
 

Once you have identified various Open Access Journals in your field of research, the next step is to assess them to determine if it is a journal you wish to publish in.  The following tools can help you to decide.

Helps researchers identify trusted journals for their research. Through a range of tools and practical resources, this international, cross-sector initiative aims to educate researchers, promote integrity, and build trust in credible research and publications

Searchable by Article, Journal Title.  Provides Impact Factors, whether or not a Journal is Open Access, and speed. Searches over 46,000 journals located via Pubmed and major Indices/Abstracts. List Indices each journal is cited in, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) provided. 
 

Uses their own analytics to measure the impact of a journal and the articles within a journal.  Has ability to  track the impact over time. Also lists the cost effectiveness of article fees within different publications.
 

Enter in the name of your article, an abstract and select from a number of options (including Open Access) and JANE will recommend journals that match your publication and entered requirements. Focus is on Medicine.
 

Use the options provided to identify a journal that matches your requirements.  Searches 95 titles.
 

Recommends titles from Elsevier's over 2900 journals. Lists Impact Factors where available, acceptance rates, Open Access options / fees and production times.  Include CiteScore, Journal Rank and Source Normalized Impact per Paper under each journal's home page.
 

Recommends titles from Springer's 2500 journals. Includes open access options / fees, impact factors (where available), turnaround times and acceptance rates.
 

Recommends titles from IEEE's 170+ journals. Lists open access options, impact factors (where available) and turnaround times. Also lists conferences.
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