Publishing in Open Access Journals

The Public Library of Science and BioMed Central are two major open access (OA) publishers.  They publish a variety of peer review OA journals in Science, Technology, and Medicine as well as in areas related to Geography and Psychology.  If a manuscript is deemed suitable for publication after the peer review process, they will charge the author a publication fee to cover the costs incurred by operating and maintaining the journal.  The published article will then be freely available online for public access.

Western Libraries is an institutional member of both publishers.  If authors from Western choose to publish with either publisher, they will enjoy a discount of the publication fee.

There are also many OA journals that do not charge a publication fee.  Authors who are not funded by research grants can choose to publish with them to enhance access to their publications.  The Directory of Open Access Journals is a handy tool for authors to identify fee-free OA journals in their disciplines.  If you have any questions about OA or publishing in OA journals, please feel free to contact your subject librarian or Adrian Ho.