As digital technology has evolved so has the ability to disseminate information. Researchers now have more options for publishing their scholarly works, whether through traditional publishers (e.g. subscription journals) or open access (OA) publishers (e.g. free public access).
"Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment. Open Access ensures that anyone can access and use these results—to turn ideas into industries and breakthroughs into better lives."
- SPARC
Articles upon publication are freely and fully accessible in OA journals. Copyright is retained by the author(s) and most of the permission barriers are removed; however, costs are often still associated with publishing in OA journals through article processing charges (APCs), which can be paid for by the author, an institution, or sponsor.
Refers to the self-archiving of a pre-print or post-print article in an online repository. Repositories can be disciplinary-specific (e.g. arXiv, PubMed Central) or institutional types hosted by an organization or university (e.g. Scholarly Commons). Whereas gold OA models can be costly, the benefit for green OA is the avoidance of costs; however, the challenges associated with green OA often involve the ability for authors to retain the necessary copyright permission to share their work.
Allows for articles upon acceptance in a traditional subscription journal to be made available OA if the author pays a fee. Although many publishers refer to hybrid journals as gold OA journals, hybrid journals are still primarily subscription journals with an OA option for individual articles.
If you are looking to publish a scholarly article, the following checklist can help you in assessing the legitimacy of a journal. Though not a comprehensive checklist this tool provides items to consider that will hopefully guide you as you look to publish.
| Items to Consider | Resources to Check In | Red Flags |
|---|---|---|
| Does the journal provide a legitimate ISSN? | Fake ISSN or the ISSN belongs to a completely different journal | |
| Does the journal provide a legitimate impact factor? |
|
The impact factor is from neither JCR, CiteScore, or Google Scholar Metrics |
| Does the publisher practice an ethical code of conduct or is a member of an industry association, especially if open access? |
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No statement of any kind regarding publishing ethics or ethical code of conduct |
| Is the journal indexed in one or more major databases? | Claims indexing but cannot be verified | |
| What is the average timeline for publication? |
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Should never be less than a month |
| Is the editorial board, or editors, listed with their full names and institutional affiliation? |
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There is no editorial board or editors listed |
| Are the editors known in their fields? | The editor is listed on multiple journals in different fields or the editors' CV does not list affiliation with that journal | |
| Does the content on the publishers website seem original and not plagiarized? | The text is copied verbatim from another publisher's website | |
| Is it clear what fees will be charged? |
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Publisher requires payment prior to acceptance |
| Does the journal clearly describe its copyright and licensing information? |
|
Copyright and licensing information is not found on the journal's website or on any published articles |
As researchers face increasing requirements from funding agencies to make their research data publicly available, having a better understanding of research data management practices can help guide them through the research process.
A data management plan (DMP) is a document that describes the data a researcher will acquire and generate throughout the research process and how that data will be used afterward. A DMP will outline how the data will be managed, described, stored, preserved, and shared.
The DMPTool is a free, open-source, online application that helps researchers create data management plans. These plans, or DMPs, are now required by many funding agencies as part of the grant proposal submission process. The DMPTool provides a click-through wizard for creating a DMP that complies with funder requirements. It also has direct links to funder websites, help text for answering questions, and resources for best practices surrounding data management.
ERAU supports faculty, student, and staff researchers who wish to organize, store and provide open access to their datasets in Scholarly Commons, the university’s institutional repository. For more information on providing open access to research data, please contact commons@erau.edu.
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