Finding open access journals and publications

Choosing an OA publishing channel

There are hundreds of journals to choose from, so it can be hard to decide which ones are reputable. You can use the following questions to help you to choose the right open access (OA) channel for your research publication:

1. What kind of OA do you and your co-authors want for your article?

2. Does your funder/institution have an open policy whose requirements you need to consider?

3. Are your co-authors bound by any OA requirements?

4. Does your preferred journal provide the OA option you need?

5. If you choose green OA, what is the publisher’s embargo period and which repository will you choose?

6. If you choose gold OA, what is the article processing charge you need to pay and where will you get the funds?

7. What is the copyright/license policy of the publisher, i.e. how can the published work be reused?

8. Does your preferred journal meet your quality standards?

The same assessments of a journals quality that you would normally apply should be used to scrutinise open access journals in terms of status, scope, suitability, publication speed, peer review, impact factor, JUFO classification (in Finland), editorial board etc. For example, is the journal you have selected registered with the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and the Publisher a member of Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)? How long has the journal been established?

Tools for finding a suitable publishing channel

Try different tools, such as the ones below, to assist you in finding the right publishing channel for your publication.

JUFO (Publication Forum) portal is a service intended for searching information on scientific series, conferences and book publishers included in the Publication Forum classification used in Finland. You can find e.g. the publication forum level and the open access status of the journal.
DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals). Find a suitable OA journal for your discipline. DOAJ is a community-curated online directory which contains a comprehensive list of OA journals of various disciplines. Search e.g. by subject, language or country. NB: Many of the journals listed by the DOAJ do not charge APCs.
Think. Check. Submit checklist helps you assess the quality of the journal you are considering.
Elsevier Journal Finder is a tool by Elsevier. You can limit your search to a certain field of science or to OA journals.
Edanz Journal Selector is a tool for choosing suitable journals beyond publisher borders. A journal can be searched e.g. by the field of study or an abstract. You can limit your search to OA journals.
JANE (Journal Article Name Estimator) helps you to choose a suitable journal, focusing on disciplines of biomedicine. The search is limited to publications indexed by the Medline database. OA journals are highlighted in the results.
Journal checker tool checks the journal’s Plan S compatibility.
OAPEN. The online library and publication platform for open access academic books.
SCImago Journal & Country Rank portal contains indicators for evaluating journals and countries that are based on the Scopus database (e.g. h-index, number of citations, SJR). You can limit your search to OA journals.

If you are still not sure about your choice, speak to your supervisor or colleagues about your publishing options. University library staff can also provide useful guidance and advice.

Finding open access articles and books

When searching for scientific publications, many scientific databases, such as PubMed, Scopus, or Web of Science, allow you to limit your search to open access publications.

UEF Library provides Guide for open publications searching. It is worth checking whenever you need tips for finding open access publications.

Here are some highlights from the guide:

CORE (Collection of open access research papers). Scientific open access articles from journals and publication repositories.
DOAB (Directory of Open Access Books). Lists peer-reviewed open access books from various publishers.
DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals). Can be used for searching for open access journals, but also for finding open access articles.
OpenAlex. A free, open access catalog of the global research system that indexes scholarly works, authors, institutions and related metadata.
Open Book Publishers. An academic book publisher whose electronic books are open to all.

Also, check out these preprint servers:

Zenodo – Multidisciplinary
Preprints – Multidisciplinary
Arxiv – Physics, mathematics, computer science
bioRxiv – Life sciences
LawArxiv – Law
medRxiv – Medicine and health sciences
PsyArxiv – Behavioural sciences
SocArxiv – Social sciences and humanities

Browser add-ons and extensions

There are also browser extensions available that are useful for finding free, legal versions of academic publications. These tools can be used for checking if an article can be found as open access on the web without hitting paywalls.

Unpaywall – Automatically displays a green Unpaywall icon in the right corner of the browser window if the article is available in an open access repository.
Google Scholar Button – The extension does not open the article directly but displays a reference for it in a Google Scholar window. From there you can search for an open access version of the article.

Remember:

There are numerous services available for searching OA journals, articles and repositories. Try them and find the ones that are the most useful for your needs!

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Module 3: Predatory journals >