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Open Access (draft 20230606): OA Publishing (Gold OA)

Enquiries: lbopen@cityu.edu.hk


OA Publishing (Gold OA)


Gold Open Access model allows the final published version of your article to be freely and permanently accessible to everyone, immediately after publication. Most permission barriers are removed, and copyright for the article is retained by the authors. Authors are usually required to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) once the article is accepted for publication.

 

CityU APC Deals Creative Commons Licenses CityU Scholars and Gold OA

Features of Gold OA Publishing:

  • A fee, commonly known as the Article Processing Charge (APC), is often payable if researchers opt for the Gold OA route. APC prices vary from journal to journal. Some journals might waive fees for Gold OA publishing due to society or external sponsorships.
  • Many Gold OA journals adopt the Creative Commons (CC) licenses, in which a modular copyright system allows re-use and re-distribution of work subjecting to certain limitation.

What to consider when choosing an OA journal?

  • How "open" is a journal
    Take a look at the guide HowOpenIsIt? A guide for evaluating the openness of journals to assess how "open" a journal is along the spectrum from closed access to open access. (English PDF or Chinese PDF)
  • Is the publisher a possible predatory publisher?
    Predatory publishers are those that exploit the model of author-pays OA publishing by charging fees for publication but with low editorial and academic standards. Click here to learn more about predatory publishers.
  • Think.Check.Submit
    The website Think. Check. Submit. helps researchers identify trusted journals and publishers for their research. Use their checklist to evaluate the journal or publisher.
  • Understand Creative Commons licenses
    Most OA journals are publishing content with Creative Commons licenses to promote access and re-use of scientific and scholarly research. You are recommended to research the finer details of the six core Creative Commons licenses before making any decisions. Each different license enables others to use your material in different ways.
  • The quality of open access journal
    Concerns about the quality of the editorial practices of some scholarly OA journal publishers have been raised. Use the sources listed in below to locate high-quality OA journal titles.
     
    • (Directory of Open Access Journals)

      DOAJ is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. DOAJ has a strict set of listing criteria to prevent predatory journals.

      *DOAJ lists of journals removed and added

      Journal Citation Reports® offers a systematic, objective means to critically evaluate the world's leading journals, with quantifiable, statistical information based on citation data. You can view open access data via the journal profile to better understand a journal's open access content, e.g. How much of the content is considered subscription versus open access, and how many citations has each type received.


      Scopus is a large abstract and citation database covering 23,500+ peer-reviewed journals from over 5,000 international publishers. Since 2015, Scopus has launched an open access (OA) indicator for journals that it indexed. The indicator allows users to easily identify open access journals within Scopus.

      (Learn more at Scopus site)