Occupational Therapy - Dallas

Open Access Publications

The goal of open access publishing is to share scholarly work freely and widely. The history of academic publishing has often been requiring a high cost for subscriptions and access to scholarly articles. With science moving at a faster pace, and the importance of access by all scientists, rather than only the ones that have deeply funded pockets, there is an understandable push for more access to scholarship without having to pay for subscriptions and access to expensive databases.

Learn more at our TWU research guide about the benefits of publishing in a open access journal:

Evaluating Publications

The challenge of open access publishing is that it's a less structured environment. Some publications are trying to broaden access to scholarship and do their best to create a quality publication. Some could be labeled as predatory publishers that are hoping to take researchers' money — and work — without much chance of their work being read or cited. 

The onus is on researchers to do the work to confirm that the publication they are considering is reputable and will help them promote their scholarship. 

Signs of Trustworthiness

• The journal or publisher appears on a reputable list or database, such as Directory of Open Access Journals, Scopus, Ulrichs, Open Policy Finder, Web of Science, or the ERA journal list.
• Articles include a DOI (digital object identifier), which means that the journal paid to have a DOI assigned.
• The publisher has registered for an ISSN, an International Standard Serial Number.
• The publisher website clearly states publishing fees and the peer-review or editorial process.
• The publisher acknowledges whether the author retains copyright, and what kind of license it will be released under, like Creative Commons.
• The editorial board is made of experts in that particular field, and they can be verified as such through LinkedIn or university websites.
• Contact information for the publisher is verifiable and professional -- country code matches country of origin, mailing address does not point to a P.O. box or residence.

Red Flags

• Receipt of an unsolicited email invitation to submit a paper, especially if it contains spelling, grammatical, or typological errors, or it is unprofessional in its speech, e.g., hello Tina or hey sweetie, or if it does not contain verifiable contact information and a website.
• The journal or publisher appears on an accepted list of predatory publishers like Cabells.
• The website for the publisher does not list a peer-review or editorial process, or the publishing fees.
• The contact information for the publisher is suspect.
  • The contact phone number does not have the correct country code.
  • The physical address of the journal when pulled up on Google maps leads to a post office box, someone’s house, or an unrelated business. If it leads to an office block — look up that office block independently and verify that there is actually a printing company by the correct name listed there.
• The publisher website features a fleet of empty journals on a wide variety of every conceivable subject. OR it is a single journal with two disparate subjects, e.g., physical therapy and humanities
• The editorial board is either nonexistent or the same as all other journals by that publisher.
• The website does not include official contact details of the editor or editorial board on the journal website. (If it does, check the profiles of any people listed — does their LinkedIn match the information on the website? Does the listed university have the author or editor as a professor or researcher? Are the contact emails for university domains? — beware Gmail or other emails not affiliated with places of research.)
• The journal either does not list an ISSN (international standard serial number) or they advertise a fake ISSN.
• An article-processing fee is requested only after your paper has been accepted. Genuine journals will want to pay regardless as it is their time and work.
• The publisher offers an expedited (for extra cost) service, or promises a short turnaround between your peer review and publication. (This can indicate a poor or fake peer review process.)
• The publisher requires authors to sign away their copyright to the article at the time of submission, making it impossible for the author to submit the article to another publisher.
• The website and/or connected social media accounts are unprofessional, with grainy or skewed pictures. Check to see whether links work and go where they are supposed to.

Considerations

New journals struggle to show reputation and, though genuine, may raise a lot of the above red flags. In this case, double your efforts to at least verify the credentials of the editorial board and journal publisher to determine authenticity. There is NO 100% guarantee or cast iron way of identifying a journal as being trustworthy. The best thing you can do is identify potential red flags and make an informed decision based on those. If in any doubt, always err on the side of caution.

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