Discounts on Author Fees for University of California Authors
Many fully open access journals, as well as all hybrid open access journals, charge a fee to authors for the publication of their accepted papers. In some cases, institutions that pay a membership fee, or that have subscriptions to the non-open access content of the journals, get discounts on the author fees for their faculty members. The California Digital Library maintains a list of publishers that grant such discounts to UC authors, and shows the discount available from each:
Reshaping Scholarly Communications: Submit Your Work to Open Access Journals
Request Form for SCP Cataloging Records for Open Access Journals
To recommend an open access journal for inclusion in the Melvyl catalog, complete this online form. If you need assistance completing the form, contact the relevant subject librarian.
Open Access Policies by Publisher or by Journal Title
If you have a specific publisher or journal whose open access polices you wish to see, a quick and fairly comprehensive source may be found at:
RoMEO is a collaborative project, housed at the University of Nottingham (UK) to collect information on journal publishers’ open access policies.
Fully Open Access Journals
Journals in this category publish exclusively open access articles. Publishers providing fully open access journals are too numerous to list. However, the sources below are useful for finding open access journals by title, publisher, subject area, or in the case of Bioline International, by countries of the developing world:
Directory of Open Access Journals
The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a very comprehensive list of journals that publish only open access content. Note, however, that publishers must submit information on their journals to DOAJ, so it is not absolutely complete. DOAJ records include the publisher, language of publication, start date and whether or not there is a publication fee for authors, with a link to the journal’s instructions for authors where available. Some journals have allowed DOAJ to directly display the journal’s table of contents information as well.
Digital Commons Network Database
The Digital Commons Network brings together scholarship from hundreds of universities and colleges, providing open access to peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work. This constantly growing body of publications is curated by university librarians and their supporting institutions, and represents thousands of disciplines and subject areas.
Journals Using Open Journal Systems
JURN is a unique search engine dedicated to indexing free "open access" e-journals in the arts and humanities, along with other relevant arts and scholarly publications offering free content.
Online Journals Published with Digital Commons
UlrichsWeb (UCSB access only)
This global serials directory indicates whether or not a journal is full open access. You may search the Key Feature field in the Advanced Search for “open access,” or search by title, publisher, etc., and then “Narrow Results” to open access journals by clicking the check box for “Open Access” in the “Key Features” area to the left of the results list.
Delayed Open Access Journals
Journals in this category require subscriptions for access to the most recent issues, but allow open access after an embargo period. The embargo period varies by journal, and may be as little as six months or as much as 15 years. There is no comprehensive list of delayed open access journals, but the following lists may be helpful:
Elsevier Delayed Access Journals
Elsevier hosts a small number of delayed open access journals. Currently all open their content to non-subscribers 12 months after initial publication.
Highwire Press, operated by Stanford University, publishes a large number of journals for scholarly societies. The page above lists the journals with free content, and specifies the period for each journal after which back issues become open access.
Hybrid Open Access Journals
Some journals offer authors a choice: publish articles under subscription access with no author fee, or under open access if the author pays a fee. Among the publishers offering open access for a fee at the author’s choice are:
American Chemical Society: AuthorChoice
American Geophysical Union: Author Choice
American Institute of Physics: Author Select
American Physiological Society: AuthorChoice.org
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Cambridge University Press: Cambridge Open Option
Canadian Science Publishing (also known as NRC Research Press): OpenArticle
De Gruyter: De Gruyter Open Library
IEEE: IEEE Open Access Program
Karger Publishing: Karger Author’s Choice
Mary Ann Liebert: Liebert Open Access Option
National Academy of Sciences: PNAS Open Access Option (Note: All PNAS articles become open access six months after publication.)
Nature Publishing Group: Open Access
Optical Society of America: Optional Open Access
Oxford University Press: Oxford Open
Royal Society of Chemistry: RSC Open Science
World Scientific Publishing: WorldSciNet OPEN ACCESS
Dubious Open Access Publishers
Unfortunately, open access publishing, like all publishing, has its share of shady practitioners - publishers who seek to make a fast buck or are operating glorified "vanity press" sites with no real dedication to scholarship. Jeffrey Beall, Metadata Librarian at Auraria Library, University of Colorado Denver, has been monitoring open access publishers and maintains a list of "predatory" publishers. Note that his opinions are not universally shared - you may wish to read the comments section at the end of the list for other points of view on specific publishers. Beall's List of Predatory Open-Access Publishers
Should I Publish in an Open Access Journal?
Open Access (OA) publications reduce permission requirements and eliminate price barriers for readers. OA allows access for researchers, teachers, journalists, policy makers and the general public without a subscription. Many studies demonstrate that OA literature receives more citations than subscription publications. This page outlines factors to consider when deciding to publish in, or be an editor for, an open access journal: Should I Publish in an Open Access Journal?
