Where to Publish Open Access?

There are various ways to publish your own manuscripts Open Access: You can either publish your manuscript in a relevant Open Access journal or with an Open Access publisher. Or you can publish in a traditional subscription-based journal and self-archive your manuscript in a repository, such as UZH's own ZORA.

If you self-archive your manuscript, you usually make the accepted manuscript (final version without publisher's layout) publicly accessible on a repository. This also lets you fulfill the SNSF's open access requirements.

Self-archiving in ZORA

DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals

A good starting point for finding a suitable OA journal is the DOAJ. It is a global online directory of quality-checked OA journals, including more and more from from Switzerland.

Directory of Open Access Journals

oa.finder

Research tool for scientific publication organs, new with data of the University of Zurich. "The oa.finder will show you which journals are gold open access, what their citation impact is, whether they charge article processing charges (APCs), and if so how much, and whether your institution covers these charges via a transformative agreement or a publication fund."

oa.finder

B!SON

B!SON helps to find a suitable OA journal by using semantic and bibliometric methods.

B!SON

Short tutorials on how to use oa.finder and B!son Search OA journal

An OA journal should meet the same qualitative requirements as conventional journals. A guide and food for thought for choosing the right journal:

Think.Check.Submit.

These platforms help to choose a suitable journal according to the following criteria:

Citation freqency - oa2020-de.org

Keywords - edanz.com

Score Cards - qoam.eu

Cost-effectiveness - eigenfactor.org

Bibliometrics & Open Metrics

DOAB: Directory of Open Access Books

The online directory DOAB lists OA book publications with scientifically recognised quality levels. Thus, DOAB is a helpful tool to find not only publications but also trustworthy book publishers.

DOAB

OAPEN: Online Library and Publication Platform

OAPEN is an initiative for OA publishing of monographs in the social sciences and humanities. Various university presses have joined the initiative and offer their publications freely via the OAPEN library.

OAPEN 

In recent years, the number of journals published by predatory publishers has skyrocketed. These are their strategies:

• High publication fees with no or insufficient quality assurance
• Lack of transparency with regard to quality control, fees, copyright
• Members of the editorial board do not exist, or the names of well-known researchers are used without their knowledge
• Imitation of names and design of renowned journals
• Use of falsified impact factors
• Spam mails promising an implausibly fast publication, although an elaborate peer review is to be carried out

Check whether the journal or publisher is listed with the following initiatives:

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• Open Access Scholarly Publishers’ Association (OASPA)
• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

You can get more tips on the platform: Think. Check. Submit.

Another helpful checklist is provided by the ULiège Library with the Compass to Publish

Our Open Access team will also be happy to advise you: oa@ub.uzh.ch

Funding for OA publications

UZH publication platforms ZORA & HOPE

ORCID

Legal aspects