Open access (Eng)

Check the quality of the journal when selecting publishing channel for an article, if the publishing channel is previously unknown. The reliability of open access journals can be assessed in the same way as for traditional scientific publications. By doing this you can avoid so-called predatory publishers (vanity publishers). At least these should be checked:
 

• Is the journal well-known in your field of study? Have you previously read an article in the journal?
• Have other researchers in your field published in the journal?
• How is the quality of previous articles in the journal?
• Who are the members of the journal's editorial staff? Is there any-well known researcher in the editorial board? Is the journal mentioned by the editors on their own web sites?
• How is peer review organized?
• How is the publisher's contact information shown on the website? Is it easy to contact the journal?
• Is there information about possible fees, for example, APC (Article Processing Charge)?
• Does the journal have an ISSN-number? Does the articles have DOI numbers?
• Does the journal allow self-archiving? Is there an embargo for self-archiving? Is it listed in Sherpa/Romeo?
• Is the publisher a member of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), or, if it is a gold OA journal, of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)?
• Is the journal listed in services such as DOAJ, Publication forum or UlrichsWeb?
• Is the journal indexed in central databases within the field such as Web of Science or Scopus?
• Does the journal have an impact factor?

More about evaluation of open access publishers:

• Think, check, submit - choose the right journal for your research DOAJ, Liber, OASPA, SPARC
• Journal assessment Hanken Library
• Dubious OA publishers Lund University Library

Most subscription-based journals offer a possibility, with a charge, to make the article openly available. This is called hybrid open access. Hybrid OA is often also referred to as "double dipping" since the university pays twice. The journal charges a subscription fee, and on top of that also an open access publication fee.

The expenses for hybrid OA are often higher than the APCs (article processing charge) in gold open access journals. Hybrid OA is therefore looked upon as a problematic model and some research funders, such as  The Academy of Finland and Business Finland discourage researchers to publish hybrid OA. See an overview of the Funder policies - Tut­ki­mus­ra­hoit­ta­jien avoi­muu­den lin­jauk­set.

Guidelines for open research at Hanken:
If the researcher chooses Gold or Hybrid Open Access any costs must be included in the research project’s budget and the Library must be informed that ACP fees have been paid.

Some (gold) open access journals cover the journal's administrative expenses by charging an Article Processing Charge (APC) from the author. The APC may vary from some tens to thousands of euros.

Always check the journal's webpage for information on APC, if you consider submitting an article to a gold OA journal. Also remember to take into account possible publication fees when applying for research funding.

Hanken researchers can publish their articles in journals published by Sage as hybrid open access for 200 GBP when acting as a corresponding author of the article. The undiscounted APC rate would be 1 600 GBP. This is made possible thanks to an agreement with publishers reached by FinElib.

Information on how to proceed: Open access publishing in Sage journal with a discounted APC rate.

Information from Sage Open Access: Publish your paper open access at a special FinElib rate.

More about discounts on APCs to publish open access.

More about the FinElib negotiations with scholarly publishers.

• DOAJ The most comprehensive list of OA journals. Browse by topic.
   
• Publication Forum (Jufo) Search for OA journals listed in Jufo.
• ROAD Directory of open access scholarly resources.
• Ulrichsweb more than 300.000 journals, including OA  journals.
  
  Finnish OA journals
• Journal.fi  A journal management and publishing service provided by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies.
• Online Scholarly Journals in Finland

Open access publishing of monographs may be possible, but it is however still rare compared to open access journal articles. Some publishers (e.g. Springer, de Gruyter) have an option for gold open access, but the book processing charge (BPC) may be considerably higher than the APC for journal articles. The business models for open access publishing of books are still not as established as for journal articles.

OA publishing of monographs University of Jyväskylä
Guide for open access publishing of monographs for arts, humanities and social science researchers, JISC, UK.

Scholarly open access books, also sorted by topic.

OAPEN Library OA books, mainly humanities and social sciences.

OpenEdition brings together four platforms dedicated to electronic resources in the humanities and social sciences.

Monographs mainly in social sciences and humanities. Information for authors.

Graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions.