As open access journals provide benefits such as liberal copyright policy, wider dissemination, and greater visibility worldwide, an ever-increasing number of researchers seek to publish their research in open access mode. You come across thousands of open access journals online, all of them promising to be a genuine one.
Considering that open access journals utilize the latest technology to help your research reach a wider audience of researchers, medical professionals, and academicians and common society globally immediately after publication, their significance and popularity can well be understood.
However, the selection of a Journal among thousands of journals for publication of research becomes a daunting task. We suggest the following steps to distinguish between genuine and fake open access journals:
- Check the indexing of the journal in the website of the indexing databases the journal promises to be indexed in.
- Check the affiliations of all editors on the Website of the Journal.
- Visit the “About” page on the journal website.
- Check whether the author guidelines provide a clearly defined scope and the papers published in the archive section reflect the scope of the journal.
- Check Editorial, Review, and Ethical policies.
- As open access journals survive on article processing charges to publish research paper from authors, check whether all charges are mentioned on the Website of the Journal.
- The Journal Website should have a publication ethics statement detailing the plagiarism policy and ethical approval policy of the journal.
- The peer review policy should be published on the Journal website.
- The publisher’s address should be clearly mentioned and contact should be given on the website.
Also, try – Journal of Communicable Diseases
Publish In Peer-Reviewed Journals
Scholarly peer review or refereeing implies the process of scrutiny of an author’s scholarly work by experts in the same discipline before publication in a Journal. This process helps the Editors take informed decisions to accept, request a revision, or decline a paper.
To keep peer review impartial, authors and reviewers are kept anonymous to each other. To enhance the reliability and quality of your article, you should consider a peer-reviewed journal for publication.
Peer reviewers find the gaps in your research results and point out where further explanation is required. The process makes your paper more accurate and reader-friendly.
The goal of the peer review process is to determine whether a research result carries weight for publication. Editors of a journal have the right to accept or not to accept the feedback of the reviewers and the decision of the Editorial Board is final. The publisher has no interference in peer review. This rigorous policy makes peer-reviewed journals more influential among researchers.
Also, try – Epidemiology International journal
Publish In Indexed Journals
Most journals indicate the databases they are indexed. Indexing databases are very selective in their decision to index a journal. If a journal shows its indexing in a database but you don’t find evidence on the website of the particular database, then you must avoid the journal.
In the past few years, authors have been seeking indexed journals to publish their research perhaps because publication in indexed journals has been rendered mandatory for further promotions in colleges and institutions.
Various indexing databases examine several factors like ISSN, DOI, timeliness of publication, review procedure, quality, etc.
As an early career researcher, you must be confused with the plethora of journals out there. There are certain issues that only you can resolve. Before publishing your research you must do the following:
- To present a systematic literature review
- To have a refined knowledge of statistics and software such as SPSS, R, JASP, or JAMOVI
- To share code and/or data
- To make your research accessible through open-access publication
View Advanced Research Publications’ SCOPUS Indexed Medical Journal HERE.
