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Academic Publishing: Publishing Open Access

A guide to avoiding deceptive and low quality publishers

Publishing Open Access

What is Open Access?

Open Access is the free online availability of research publications coupled with the rights to use and reuse those publications.

What are the benefits of Open Access?

  • Find the widest possible audience for your work

  • Advance human knowledge and improve lives

  • Include everyone in the discourse around your work

  • Speed up the research and discovery process

Adapted from "Key OA Benefits" by SPARC Europe, licensed under CC BY 4.0

But aren't Open Access journals predatory?

No. This is a common misperception. A journal can be predatory and open access, but many high quality journals are published open access. View the tab titled "Predatory Journals" at the top of the page to learn more about avoiding deceptive, or predatory, publishers.

Why am I getting asked for a fee?

Many open access journals must charge a fee Article Processing Charges (APCs) to sustain their publishing model. View our Open Access Support and Author's Rights Guides for more information on options for open access publishing.

Open Access Pathways

Graphic that states: Open Access  MEANING OF THE TYPES & COLOURS. Gold Open Access  First publication in Open Access. Costs born by Article Processing Charge (APC). Green Open Access  Secondary publication from access-restricted journals  or books on repositories or archives.  Hybrid Open Access  Authors "buy out" articles from access-restricted journals with an APC. Thus, institutions are often charged twice if no framework agreement such as DEAL applies.  Bronze Open Access  Freely accessible journal articles on publishers' servers without clear details on reuse.  Diamond Open Access  Publications free of charge both for readers and for authors.Black Open Access Illegal Open Access via services such as SciHub.Open Economics Guide (https://openeconomics.zbw.eu/en/)

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