Why Is It Worth Publishing in OA Journals?

 [Approximate Reading Time : 4 mins]

Open access (OA) publishing has gained momentum since the onset of the pandemic. Yet researchers hesitate to publish in OA journals because of a lack of awareness about how they work.

OA Is Legitimate

One of the main concerns in research publishing with OA is that many believe that OA publishing follows a pay-to-publish business model. Only predatory journals work that way. Some OA journals require the author to pay the article processing charges (APC). This only means that the author pays the charges instead of readers.

Relevant Questions

Do OA journals meet the standards of other journals?

Yes. OA journals listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) or Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) undergo exhaustive screening to check their standards. All OA journals conduct peer review or editorial quality screening to ensure research standards.

Is the publisher reputable?

Check the journals under the publisher and their indicators like impact factors/rank. The impact factor is available for older OA journals, while new ones can be checked by their journal ranks. Do not rely on search engine results, as they include poor-quality journals too.

Are OA journals archived?

Check whether the journal you opt for is archived for use later if the online site becomes unavailable. Journals Indexed in DOAJ, OASPA, Web of Science, and so on are mostly archived.

What are the author’s rights?

The journal’s web page details the licenses you can publish under. OA reduces permissions to share/use your research through Creative Commons licensing that permits reuse in advance. Authors are also allowed to archive their research in repositories.

Perception of OA

Open access publishing became a necessity during the spread of COVID-19 to share research at an unprecedented rate. This widely changed the opinion of many. Open research benefited everyone and proved more useful when it was made accessible to others without barriers. Nowadays, even funders and institutions ask researchers to publish in OA journals.

Right Approach

It is the responsibility of the author to check the credibility of the journal they choose to publish their articles in—open access or not. Many tools and sites are available to help in finding the right journal for a research topic. Read our blog “How to Verify the Open Access Status and Quality of a Journal?” to know more. Also check out “What Are the Funding Options for Open Access Publishing?” that provides you information on the funding options available for OA publishing.

OA Benefits

OA publications gain a wider audience than those with closed access. The readers can not only access and read the work but also build upon it with the permission of and the proper attribution to the author. OA contributes to the impact of scholarly research. This is significant in global topics that concern large populations or topics that can help developing countries whose researchers cannot afford costly subscriptions. Advancements in scientific research are hindered by payment and copyrights barriers, which is why open access is needed in this digital age.

Amnet’s modern publishing platform ReachOA enhances the publishing workflow for journals and facilitates micropublishing through flexible and user-friendly features. Know more at https://bit.ly/38Sth9P.

Sources:
1. https://www.library.ucsb.edu/scholarly-communication/should-i-publish-open-access-journal.
2. https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/are-open-access-journals-good-quality/#.
3. https://www.cogsci.nl/blog/miscellaneous/192-the-difference-between-freely-accessible-content-and-open-access.