Open Access Journals

What is an open access journal and how is it different from a conventional journal?

Dr. Peter Suber outlines some of the key characteristics of open access journals in the below excerpt from his OA overview:

• OA journals conduct peer review.
• OA journals typically let authors retain copyright.
• Some OA journal publishers non-profit (e.g. Public Library of Science or PLoS) and some are for-profit (e.g. BioMed Central or BMC).
• OA journals pay their bills very much the way broadcast television and radio stations do: those with an interest in disseminating the content pay the production costs upfront so that access can be free of charge for everyone with the right equipment. Sometimes this means that journals have a subsidy from the hosting university or professional society. Sometimes it means that journals charge a processing fee on accepted articles, to be paid by the author or the author's sponsor (employer, funding agency). OA journals that charge processing fees usually waive them in cases of economic hardship. OA journals with institutional subsidies tend to charge no processing fees. OA journals can get by on lower subsidies or fees if they have income from other publications, advertising, priced add-ons, or auxiliary services. Some institutions and consortia arrange fee discounts. Some OA publishers (BMC and PLoS) waive the fee for all researchers affiliated with institutions that have purchased an annual membership. . . .
• We can be confident that OA journals are economically sustainable because the true costs of peer review, manuscript preparation, and OA dissemination are considerably lower than the prices we currently pay for subscription-based journals. There's more than enough money already committed to the journal-support system. Moreover, as OA spreads, libraries will realize large savings from the conversion, cancellation, or demise of subscription-based journals.

There are a number of strategies for funding open access journals. For possible business plans, see Open Access Journal Business Guides, Open Access Publishing and Scholarly Societies, and Publishing Open-Access Journals: A Brief Overview from The Public Library of Science.

Major OA journal publishers include BioMed Central, Hindawi, and the Public Library of Science.

You can find OA journals using the Directory of Open Access Journals.