Open Access Journals: What is special about them?
- December 9, 2023
- Posted by: Yury Subachev, PhD
- Categories: Education and trainings, For young scientists, Paper publication
Many important research studies from various fields of knowledge remain inaccessible to most scientific communities, scholars and require payment for access to publications, which has brought the need for Open Access journals.
Open access enables scientists from all over the world to study online the latest materials on topics of interest free of charge. This is also a plus for the authors since the interest in their publications increases and their citation index goes up, which tells favourably on their career development.
Read below about all the benefits of Open Access, its features, with debunking of common misconceptions about Open Access journals.
Open Access journals are publications with free access to scholars’ works that can be accessed by the reader on the Internet. Open access is provided to the full text of articles and other materials published in peer-reviewed reputable editions. Any user of the global Internet can view any paper.
The need for Open Access arose due to the fact that many researchers and readers interested in science were not able to obtain information on new research and its results without paying a fee. The scientific institutions and organisations funding this research had long advocated for open science, so that anyone could read articles within different fields of knowledge.
Open access was first discussed in 2002 at a meeting in Budapest. It was stated at that time that only the author had the right to use the results of his/her developments, share them with the public. The readers, in their turn, were supposed to use such data in their works only with reference to the scientist’s authorship.
A year after, the first non-profit organisations began to appear that were granted a licence to publish free access materials.
Today, two types of Open Access exist:
- with the function of open access;
- with completely open access.
In the first case, articles can be available either for free or for additional fee to all users or only to subscribers of the service or the journal. In this case, the author decides whether to pay for the publication or not. In the second case, the publication of a scientific paper is paid by the author, and its text is available to all readers.
Scientific papers included in open access journals cover reliable research results within an extensive scholarship range, as well as original and structured data, digital versions of figures, charts and other materials.
Open Access publications must meet two main requirements:
– the article authors or persons having the right to publish such papers let any user read the material, copy, transmit or distribute it, create and publish new scientific papers based on the provided data, with indication of the authorship;
– the online archive retains at least one copy of all materials submitted for publication which can be freely used by research institutes, scientific communities, other organisations – namely, as concerns distribution of the work with unlimited access, ensuring interoperability and long-term archiving.
2. Advantages of Open Access journals.
The demand for Open Access journals is growing every day; the increasing number of scientists are choosing collaboration with such editions. Despite the need to pay for publication of a scholarly work in the edition, free access is beneficial for the author as much as it is for the reader.
Eight major advantages of Open Access journals:
1. The opportunity to study the latest research findings in a broad variety of scholarly fields for free on an ongoing basis – which makes scientific knowledge accessible to any researcher and those who are concerned.
2. The openness of important information contributes to acceleration of scientific progress, prompt exchange of information between scientists around the world.
3. Texts can be read, in addition, they can be downloaded, saved and used for advancement of science.
4. For the author, it is an opportunity to familiarise extensive audience with his/her work, to enhance own authority and prestige, to develop as a scientist, to grow up the career ladder.
5. Growing citation index and scholar’s recognisability through open dissemination and promotion of his/her research.
6. Attracting sponsors to funding of new projects and conducting additional experiments.
7. Retained copyright and the ability to be free in using own developments at personal discretion.
8. An opportunity to find like-minded people for joint research and writing scholarly papers in co-authorship.
3. Who pays: the reader or the author? Differences between Open Access and the traditional subscription system.
Traditional scholarly journals profit from journal subscriptions or from sale of articles published by them, that is, the readers have to pay for the opportunity to read a publication of interest.
This has always caused a wave of resentment on the part of the scientific community. Public and private organisations demanded to provide them with necessary information for free since journals did not buy articles from authors. This resulted in the emergence of Open Access journals which became in demand not only in scientific domains, but also in the society as a whole.
The main difference of Open Access journals from traditional ones is that Open Access journals get revenues from charging the author for publication of materials. Meanwhile the reader gets an opportunity to familiarise himself/herself with the text he/she needs for free. In all other respects, there is no difference between the two types of subscription, neither in terms of requirements to the articles nor regarding their quality or rating status of editions.
By choosing to publish an article through the Open Access system, the author pays:
- the cost of publishing the paper;
- extra fee for printing colour pictures;
- the costs of reviewing service.
The cost of publication is quite high – it depends on the journal rating, its impact factor and quartile. At the same time, almost all Open Access journals offer cancellation of payment for certain categories of authors – for example, if a scholar lives in a low-income country according to the World Bank rating. It is also possible to ask the editorial board to publish a work for free on other grounds or to get a discount.
4. Where can I look for Open Access articles and journals?
You can refer to one of the search engines to select a reputable rated edition:
- Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com.ru/) is a large information portal where one can find academic literature on any area of knowledge from a variety of sources;
- Google Patents (https://www.google.com/patents) is a database incorporating full texts of over 7 million patents;
- OAIster (https://oaister.worldcat.org/) is a catalogue with links to digital sources from around the world, with millions of metadata records;
- BASE (https://www.base-search.net/) is a search engine founded by the international project Open Archives Initiative in cooperation with the European research and information platform DRIVER;
- org is a global network enabling search of data from national and international sources;
- Directory of open access books (DOAB, https://www.doabooks.org/) is a catalogue of peer-reviewed books with links to the original source that is in charge of indexing;
- OpenDOAR (https://www.opendoar.org/) is a catalogue of repositories providing a link to diversified scholarly and academic editions;
- ROAR (https://roar.eprints.org/) is a register of institutional repositories;
- Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research (https://www.driver-repository.eu/) is a free-access catalogue covering various fields of knowledge and containing millions of scientific publications in 36 languages.
In addition, the search of Open Access journals is made through institutional repositories, digital libraries and international social networks for scholars.
Conclusion
Open Access journals provide an opportunity to make science accessible to a broad audience and to make information on latest developments and research free of charge. Though the author has to pay for posting his/her publication Open Access is also useful for him/her – since the more people read the article and use it in their scientific work, the higher the citation index will be; the scholar’s recognisability and credibility among the peers will grow.
When choosing a suitable Open Access journal for placement of academic materials, a scientist should trust reliable sources. Any information should be carefully verified; one should not believe idle speculations about Open Access. The choice of a good journal does not depend on whether it provides open or closed access. The journal’s reputation and rating, its indexing in the international database, its impact factor and quartile are much more important.
Also Read Seven Myths about Open Access Journals
