How do I find a suitable (Open Access) journal?
Finding the right journal for an article can be a challenge for authors considering all the available options. In addition to professional quality and thematic scope, accessibility to published articles should also play a role in choosing a journal.
Think. Check. Submit.
A helpful tool for choosing a suitable journal is Think. Check. Submit.
The questions listed there can help aurtors assess the seriousness of a journal.
DOAJ
The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is the primary resource for finding out more about open access journals.
SherpaRomeo
If authors decide not to publish in an OA-only journal, SherpaRomeo provides initial information on the self-archiving policies of journals and publishers.
- Does the article fit the journal's subject scope?
- Did you follow the author guidelines of the journal?
- Is it a legitimate journal (not a "predatory journal")?
- Open Access journal or Open Access options?
- Does the journal comply with the institution's or funder's Open Access policies?
- Are there any costs involved? Are there funding options?
- Especially in the case of publication in a subscription journal: Author rights clarified?
How can I finance the APCs?
For information on whether and how your Article Processing Charge (APC) can be financed, see our Open Access Funding Checklist.
If I do not publish OA, what do I have to be aware of?
If you do not want to publish your article under a free license, you should make sure that you reserve the right to republish your publication. A secondary publication (also known as self-archiving) is the republication of an article that has already appeared in a journal.
You can reserve the corresponding rights by means of the license agreement that you conclude with the publisher. Often, these standard contracts already contain corresponding clauses that can be adapted if necessary. Apart from the license agreement, as an author you have an indispensable right of secondary publication for all journal articles that have received at least half of their funding from public sources, according to §38(4) UrhG. And this is completely independent of what you have agreed with the publisher. You are allowed to make articles freely available in the accepted manuscript version 12 months after the initial publication.
Services and information on secondary publication
- TIB offers all (current and former) LUH members the opportunity to publish their articles in the institutional repository of Leibniz Universität Hannover free of charge.
- In addition, the TIB operates a subject repository for all publications in the fields of science and technology, which is generally open to all authors free of charge.
- Further information on the topic of secondary publications can be found, for example, in this article on the TIB blog (in German).
