Scholarly Communications

The Open Access movement seeks to create an alternative to the traditional publishing model by creating opportunities for authors to more freely share their work. Universities play an important role in educating their faculty and students about issues related to Open Access, such as managing their copyrights and submitting their work to open collections like ScholarWorks@GVSU.

Open Access Journal Quality Indicators

Open access journals make articles freely available on the Internet, permitting any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or link to the full text. Benefits of publishing in an open access venue may include:

  • Increased visibility, usage, and impact of your research
  • More efficient dissemination compared with traditional publishing models
  • Retention of some or all of your copyrights
  • Contribution to societal good by providing scholarly content to a global audience
  • Rigor of traditional peer-review before publication
  • Ongoing feedback through social media

The open access landscape is complex. There are thousands of peer-reviewed open access journals, with new titles emerging rapidly using a variety of models. While there are many high-quality, peer-reviewed open access publications, there are also journals/publishers that engage in unprofessional or unethical practices. The following guidelines are intended to help you evaluate open access publications as you consider appropriate publication venues, or invitations to serve as reviewers or editors.

Note that there is no single criterion that indicates whether or not a publication is reputable. Rather, look for a cumulative effect of more positives or more negatives. If you still have questions, please contact your liaison librarian.

Positive Indicators on Journal/Publisher Website

  • Scope of the journal is well-defined and clearly stated
  • Journal’s primary audience is researchers/practitioners
  • Editor, editorial board are recognized experts in the field
  • Journal is affiliated with or sponsored by an established scholarly society or academic institution
  • Articles are within the scope of the journal and meet the standards of the discipline
  • Any fees or charges for publishing in the journal are easily found on the journal web site and clearly explained
  • Articles have DOIs (Digital Object Identifier, e.g., doi:10.1111/j.1742-9544.2011.00054.x)
  • Journal has an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number, e.g., 1234-5678)

Negative Indicators on Journal/Publisher Website

  • Journal web site is difficult to locate or identify
  • Publisher “About” information is absent on the journal’s web site
  • Publisher direct marketing (i.e., spamming) or other advertising is obtrusive
  • Instructions to authors information is not available
  • Information on peer review and copyright is absent or unclear on the journal web site
  • Journal scope statement is absent or extremely vague
  • No information is provided about the publisher, or the information provided does not clearly indicate a relationship to a mission to disseminate research content
  • Repeat lead authors in same issue
  • Publisher has a negative reputation (e.g., documented examples in Chronicle of Higher Education, list-servs, etc.)

Positive External Indicators

Open Access Publication Models

Open access journal:
All journal content is available for researchers to read, print, download, distribute, or link to without fees.
Hybrid journal:
Some content is open access, typically via publication or author fees.
Embargoed open access:
Also called delayed open access. This is a subscription model that provides open access to content after an embargo period expires. For example, the most current content may only be available to subscribers, while the archived issues are open access.

For more information, contact scholarworks@gvsu.edu.

Page last modified December 17, 2012