H818 Conference presentation
As good as gold? A guide to Open Access publishing options in ecology and conservation journals
Thursday 13th February, 10.55-11.10
Link to multimedia poster (not screen readable):
https://biteable.com/watch/as-good-as-gold-2411552
Audio version of poster:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wdqe450ea1itb3p/Audio%20for%20poster.mp3?dl=0
Transcript to accompany audio:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6tuv2i73nhx5lej/Transcript%20for%20H818%20poster.docx?dl=0
Draft website
Slides from conference presentation
https://www.dropbox.com/s/39eprpmu6a1fzsq/Conference%20presentation%20Jenny%20Duckworth.pptx?dl=0
Abstract
Academic careers are built on research outputs and their dissemination, so publication in well-regarded journals is a priority. This is particularly the case for researchers early in their careers who need to publish to gain a ‘foot in the door’ within academia and build their reputations. This presentation will introduce a multimedia guide to Open Access (OA) publishing options for early career researchers in ecology and conservation in the UK.
In contrast to the ‘traditional’ approach of publishing articles in journals that can be read via a paid-for subscription or one-off charge, OA makes them freely available to readers (JISC, 2019). This means that they reach a wider audience, so the research gets more exposure and is cited more (Piwowar et al., 2018). OA is increasingly being mandated by research funders, with the main UK funding bodies, including the Research Councils and Wellcome Trust, making OA publication of research outputs a requirement.
There are two main approaches to OA: ‘green’ (where articles are made available via digital repositories) and ‘gold’ (where articles are made free to read in journals), but the latter may involve payment of an article processing charge (APC) by the authors. Through the gold route, the author may choose to pay to publish in a fully OA journal, or make it OA within a ‘hybrid’ journal that has a mixture of OA and pay-to-read articles. Several other OA ‘options’ have appeared more recently, including ‘platinum’ journals, which do not levy an APC on the authors, and ‘bronze’, where publishers make an article OA but only for a limited period of time and/or without an open licence (Piwowar et al., 2018). Articles can also be made available via ‘black’ OA, through illegal sites such as SciHub (Björk, 2016).
Although most OA journals are considered ‘credible’ through their listing in the Directory of Open Access Journals (Tennant et al., 2019) there has been a rise in so-called ‘predatory’ OA journals. These take advantage of researchers through promises of rapid publication or low APCs but peer review is minimal or absent and quality compromised (McCann and Polacsek, 2017)
With
the range of OA ‘options’ available, it can be difficult for researchers,
particularly those early in their careers, to know how to choose the best OA
‘option’ whilst ensuring they publish in a high quality journal. A multimedia
guide has therefore been produced to support early career researchers in
navigating the different OA options. This guide, which will be demonstrated during
the conference presentation, is hosted on a website and includes a short video
introduction to the OA ‘options’. The accompanying text provides an overview of
each ‘option’ and factors to consider when choosing them, together with links to
further information where appropriate. It also includes some worked examples
for different ecology and conservation journals, covering costs and any publishing
conditions, to help authors make an informed publication choice.
Björk, B-C. (2016) ‘Gold, green and black open access’, Learned Publishing, vol. 30, pp. 173-175 [Online]. Available at: https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1002/leap.1096 (Accessed 29 December 2019).
JISC (2019) An introduction to Open Access [Online]. Available at: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/an-introduction-to-open-access (Accessed 29 December 2019).
McCann, T.V. and Polacsek, M. (2017) ‘False gold: safely navigating open access publishing to avoid predatory publishers and journals’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol. 74, pp. 809-817 [Online]. Available at: https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1111/jan.13483 (Accessed 29 December 2019).
Piwowar, H., Priem, J., Larivière, V., Alperin, J.P., Matthias, L., Norlander, B., Farley, A., West, J. and Haustein, S. (2018) ‘The state of OA: a large-scale analysis of the prevalence and impact of Open Access Articles’, PeerJ 6:e4375 [Online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4375 (Accessed 29 December 2019).
Tennant, J.P., Crane, H., Crick, T. et al. (2019) ‘Ten hot topics in scholarly publishing’, Publications, vol. 7, issue 2, [Online]. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/7/2/34/htm (Accessed 3 January 2020).
Comments
Questions from the Conference
Hi Jenny
Here are the questions and comments from your conference presentation - please respond in whatever way you wish!
Best wishes
Simon
Response to questions
Thanks for the questions Simon - I've responded in bold below:H818 Presentation Star
Congratulations Jenny!
Your presentation at the H818 Online Conference 2020 has been voted by audience members as one of the most effective presentations, and you are one of the winners of this year's Presentation Star awards!
You may download your award certificate from https://drive.google.com/open?id=1whAHt67nTTucB9XFXYHVTzW_R847t1Z3
Well done and many Congratulations!
Simon Ball
H818 Conference Organiser