The quality of open access journals
As a rule, you may also publish your article in an open access journal. Evaluate the open publication channel carefully before selection.
Does the publication channel fulfil the requirements set for publishing your research?
Evaluation checklist:
- Is the journal well known in your field of science? Have you personally read articles published in the journal?
- Does the journal have an ISSN number and DOI identifiers for its articles?
- Look for the distinctive features of predatory publishers. Can you find them in the publication channel?
- Are the journal’s articles licenced with Creative Commons licences or are the article copyrights otherwise clarified?
- Does the journal have an impact factor? If yes, please verify it from a reliable source.
- In which databases the journal is indexed?
- Is the journal in Scopus and/or Web of Science (both are available in the University network)?
- Is the journal in DOAJ?
- Is there useful information in Cabells (available in the University network)?
- Does the journal have a classification in the Publication Forum (JUFO)?
- Is the publisher of the journal a member of OASPA (Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association) and/or COPE (Committee of Publication Ethics)?
- Does the journal allow open access self-archiving (parallel publishing)? Verify this from the Sherpa Romeo service.
- Is the journal’s website appropriate? Does the website clearly explain the following:
- article processing charges (APC, publishing fee) and other possible payments
- the editor-in-chief and the editorial board and their contact information
- principles of peer assessment and the progress of publication process