Do you have any advice about publishing in open access journals?
Answer
Publishing in an open access journal is an excellent way to ensure that your research reaches the widest possible audience.
Some open access journals charge authors an article processing fee to subsidize the costs of editing and production that would otherwise be covered by subscription charges. Some OA journals don’t charge anything for publishing, because they may be supported by an academic institution and volunteer labor.
Northeastern University Library has agreements with a variety of publishers to support open access publishing. Through transformative agreements and various subscribe-to-open and publish-and-read models, Northeastern-affiliated authors can have Article Processing Charges (APCs) fully covered or can receive discounts on the APCs charged by some publishers to make their articles available Open Access.
For more information and a list of publishers that the library has agreements with, see Open Access Publishing on the library website.
The library has also created a guide on Choosing a Publication Venue. This guide provides resources on how to assess journal quality and whether it is the right place to submit your work—important considerations regardless of whether a journal is open access or not. The Directory of Open Access Journals lists thousands of OA journals that meet rigorous criteria for inclusion.
Even if you don’t publish your article in an open access journal,many publishers permit authors to post a version of their articles on their personal or university websites, or in an online repository, for readers who don’t have access to the journal. Check your author contract, the journal’s information for authors on their website, or this database of publisher policies about self-archiving.
The library's Digital Repository Service provides a secure, accessible platform for you to upload, store and share your article.