Library:PublishingArticles/Open Access Journals

Some of the journals you find may be open access (OA). OA is both a theory and a movement – encouraging the removal of barriers to scholarly research, so that it is freely accessible worldwide. OA research is “digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.” Learn more about OA from Scholarly Communications @ UBC. Many peer-reviewed OA journals hold high citation rates and impact factors. However, some non-tenured researchers may worry about how publications in OA journals are valued by promotion and tenure committees. Ultimately you as a researcher are the best judge as to which journals are appropriate for your discipline and for the point in your career.

Publishing your article in an Open Access journal is one of the ways of complying with funding agency requirements

Many funding agencies now require that publicly-funded research be freely available - in Open Access journals or institutional repositories, etc. - after publication in a journal available only to subscribers. Here are some examples:

• Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) )
• Most US funding agencies including National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, etc.

Open Access Publisher Discounts for UBC Researchers

Some OA journals request a fee for article submission and review, often referred to as an article processing charge (APC). UBC Library’s commitment to OA extends to institutional memberships with a variety of OA publishers and organizations. These memberships provide benefits to researchers at UBC, often through discounts on APCs.

See our list of available OA publisher discounts and institutional memberships, and contact the UBC Scholarly Communications and Copyright office for further information.

Predatory Journals

The growth of OA has also come with the growth of "predatory journals" that aim to exploit the OA model. These journals combine low standards with questionable editorial and publishing practices..

To learn more about predatory journals, go to the Selecting a Journal section of this guide.