Research Guides: Open Access: Quality

OA Quality

Some researchers and writers worry that Open Access journals are not peer-reviewed or are poor quality. Indeed, some unscrupulous publishers use the pay-to-publish model (Gold OA) to take advantage of researchers eager to get their work published anywhere.

But there are ways to verify the legitimacy of Open Access sources:

Check that the publisher is a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association. This organization requires certain quality criteria be verified for all of its member OA publishers, such as transparent peer review.
Think. Check. Submit:

Quality indicators

In addition to the options listed on this page, other high-quality publications are also OA. Use these tools to help find them:

Cabells Journalytics Academic
Use the Filters option to the right of the search box to limit only to Open Access. Then limit to your discipline or other search criteria.
SMU Libraries has access to Journalytics for Education, Psychology & Psychiatry, Computer Science, Health & Nursing, and Mathematics & Science, as well as Predatory Reports.

Directory of Open Access Journals
These are all confirmed OA journals, but there is no quality-checking to be included on the list, so do your own checking. Those listed with the DOAJ Seal (about 10%) have met seven criteria for best OA practices.