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Open Access Toolkit

Use this guide to learn more about Open Access publications, funding, metrics, etc.

Categories of Open Access Journals 


Open Access Journals are scholarly journals that make journal content openly available for viewing without charge. They are often divided into several categories:  

  • Gold Open Access Journals where All Articles are made available to read for free but Authors pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) to have their research published.  The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) has agreements with several of the main commercial publishers allowing researchers to publish in these journals without paying Article Processing Charges.  Among the publishers are:
    • Elsevier
    • Oxford
    • Cambridge
    • Wiley
    • Sage
    • Institute of Physics
  • Platinum / Diamond Open Access Journals where All Articles are made available to read for free and Authors DO NOT pay Article Processing Charges.  
  • Hybrid Journals make specific articles available for free IF a researcher pays the journal an Article Processing Charge. These types of journals are going the way of the dinosaur due to funder demands they  convert to full open access.  In Canada, many are now covered by CRKN agreements with publishers. 

Gold, Platinum and Open Access articles in Hybrid Journals are all acceptable for the purposes of fulfilling funding agencies Open Access Mandates. 

Identify Where to Publish for Free

 

Identifying Gold Open  Access Journals


Identifying Platinum / Diamond Open Access  Journals


CRKN has an Open Access tool that enables you to locate journals covered by their various publisher agreements.  
Brandon has agreements with Elsevier, Sage, Wiley, Cambridge, Oxford and IOP. 

Simply enter a search and learn where it is published and  what the agreement allows.


The Directory of Open Access Journals is a quality resource  that lists Open Access Journals.  You can even
search using their Seal of Approval. 

Simply enter a search and use their filters to specify language, without fees, seal of approval, etc. 

 


 

Results Listing Publishers and Agreement Reduction (most are free) 
 


 

Results  with Limiters 
 

Learn About Open Access Journals and Funder Mandates


Sherpa Services is an excellent tool if you want to know if a journal is Open Access, allows archiving of articles in repositories, about a Journal’s  Policy, it’s Open access Compliance.   It will not list any predatory publications. 

Locating Open Access Journals that Publish on Your Topic Using Bison 
 

B!SON helps you to find a suitable Open Access journal for your publication by leveraging semantic and bibliometric methods. Simply enter the details of your manuscript below or fetch the details of a paper via its DOI or arXiv ID. It is not necessary to provide all fields. 
The journal information is provided by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) meaning no predatory publications are listed.

BISON cannot guarantee the correctness and details (like costs)  due to ongoing changes made by publishers.  Consequently, authors should check on the journal homepage for current rates before submitting. 

Assessing Journals for Publication 
 

Once you have identified various Open Access Journals in your field of research, the next step is to assess them to determine if it is a journal you wish to publish in.  The following tools can help you to decide.

Helps researchers identify trusted journals for their research. Through a range of tools and practical resources, this international, cross-sector initiative aims to educate researchers, promote integrity, and build trust in credible research and publications

Searchable by Article, Journal Title.  Provides Impact Factors, whether or not a Journal is Open Access, and speed. Searches over 46,000 journals located via Pubmed and major Indices/Abstracts. List Indices each journal is cited in, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) provided. 
 

Uses their own analytics to measure the impact of a journal and the articles within a journal.  Has ability to  track the impact over time. Also lists the cost effectiveness of article fees within different publications.
 

Enter in the name of your article, an abstract and select from a number of options (including Open Access) and JANE will recommend journals that match your publication and entered requirements. Focus is on Medicine.
 

Use the options provided to identify a journal that matches your requirements.  Searches 95 titles.
 

Recommends titles from Elsevier's over 2900 journals. Lists Impact Factors where available, acceptance rates, Open Access options / fees and production times.  Include CiteScore, Journal Rank and Source Normalized Impact per Paper under each journal's home page.
 

Recommends titles from Springer's 2500 journals. Includes open access options / fees, impact factors (where available), turnaround times and acceptance rates.
 

Recommends titles from IEEE's 170+ journals. Lists open access options, impact factors (where available) and turnaround times. Also lists conferences.

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Eliminating Predatory Journals


Predatory Journals are publications that promise you that they are scholarly but fail to meet the editorial and review criteria that distinguish scholarly publications from vanity publishers.  Many have written about how to ascertain if a publication is predatory.  There are also some tools you can use to determine if a journal is predatory:  

JURN searches Open Access Journals, Books and Theses.  It also lays claim to eliminating Predatory Publishers from its search.

This Blacklist Identifies publications that lay claim to being OA but whose practices tend to be suspect.