It’s time to celebrate Open Access Week! This year’s theme carries over from the last, “Community over Commercialization” because it’s just that important and more emphasis is needed on pushing back against corporations usurping scholarly publishing from the public and academic community where it belongs.
One way to move the agenda forward is to hold all journals to the same standards and rigor of analysis, whether open access or subscription-based. Think. Check. Submit. provides a comprehensive and effective rubric for determining if a particular journal is an appropriate place for your work. Covering areas such as transparency of peer review process, fees charged, and contact information, as well as affiliations with recognized industry initiatives and adequate indexing and archiving, this assessment checklist highlight many of the hallmarks of upstanding journals.
There are also additional concerns to consider, which may bring to light a publisher’s hyperfocus on commercialization. In particular, when it comes to fees charged, transparency goes beyond just providing the costs in numbers, but also elucidating what is covered by those fees so that one can more readily determine if they are reasonable. Not all publications have the same overhead costs. Some may support a large set of backfiles and others may be the main source of income for a non-profit professional or academic society, so defining “reasonable” will vary.
Also take the time to look deeper into who really owns the journal. Is there a large conglomerate behind this publication that has conflicting interests in mind? Is their goal to maximize the dissemination of research and scholarship or to maximize profits?
Sign up to learn about ways Tufts supports open access at our October 23rd, 2pm workshop!