Dear Hulya,

I think is very important to proceed very carefully when you are choosing to publish your work with an open access publisher.

This paper explain very well what I meaning: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1087/20130203/epdf

In addition, you have to consider that many conventional journals, provide excellent service free of publication charges, transparent peer-review process and high overall quality.

Dear Hulya,

I think is very important to proceed very carefully when you are choosing to publish your work with an open access publisher.

This paper explain very well what I meaning: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1087/20130203/epdf

In addition, you have to consider that many conventional journals, provide excellent service free of publication charges, transparent peer-review process and high overall quality.

As other colleagues say, check carefully whether a particular open access journal is reputable (e.g. covered by major databases like Scopus, Web of Science, etc.).

This RG project could provide some helpful guidance

https://www.researchgate.net/project/ETHICAL-AND-PREDATORY-PUBLISHING

Dear Hulya Avci

From my point of view, the opinion article of J. Beall, mentioned in a previous post by Antonio Pirisi, mixes valid and valuable arguments with 'half truths'. It establishes simplistic and rigid divisions between 'good' and 'bad', omitting a deep analysis of a complex panorama in which come into play various types of intentions, situations, interests, etc..

In each discipline there are different situations, but there are usually some good options for open access publishing, and also terrible ones.

Outside the English-speaking world, for example, systems such as SciELO or REDALYC offer open access journals, with academic quality and that do not charge fees.

I think it is important to be clear about the differences between open access publication, golden open access and, on the other hand, predatory publishers.

No doubt, it is very important to avoid the last ones at all costs.

In addition, when choosing a journal to publish, the author must take into account the intended recipients of her/his production, and for what purposes is she/he publishing. Golden or green open access undoubtedly allows a wider audience.

Let's consider, as a fictitious example, a research related to social aspects in a region with high rates of poverty and marginality. If it is not published in an open access journal, it probably will not be available to researchers and practitioners working with that population, within institutions that have limited economic resources. Situations of this kind are frequent in the region where I live, and as far as I know, also in many other parts of the world.

Thanks a lot for your valuable comment, dear @Pedro Falcato. You have provided highly beneficial information about the choice of journals to publish. Besides that, I like your viewpoint you very well pointed out with a "fictitious example" which truly represents the common situation of many institutions and also certain hardships many learners often experience in my country as well. So it is good to be aware of such important aspects of the issue.

While the original site hosting the Beall's list of predatory journals and publishers (scholarly-oa.com) does not host the list anymore, I have recently found two web sites

http://beallslist.weebly.com

https://predatoryjournals.com/

which claim build on and expand the Beall's list .

See also the related question

https://www.researchgate.net/post/A_new_site_listing_predatory_journals_What_do_you_think_of_it

Hulya,

I think it's critical to distinguish predatory, low-impact, and open-access. These terms each mean something very different and it would be unfair to conflate the three terms into a single category.

It is widely accepted that open-access fees are generally high. Prestigious and world-renowned journals (e.g. PLoS, Nature, JAMA, Lancet) charge exorbitant fees to publish open-access publications in an effort to compensate for loss of revenue from traditional print media. Right or wrong, this is the current state of play.

In my mind, predatory journals are those which charge fees out-of-proportion with their relative ranking within the academic community. They have limited readership, no standards, minimal peer review, little credibility, no impact factor, etc. The journal is being run purely as a means for financial profit, not disseminating quality research.

As others have noted, I would avoid predatory journals. Although you may be able to claim a publication, most reputable institutions would discount its value to compensate for the relative quality. In other words, you would be better publishing 1 quality article in a mid-tier journal, than 4 poor articles in non-ranked journals.

Hope this helps - best wishes for success!

Hamed Bazaz

Founder, Managing Director | JournalEdit (journaledit.com)

@Hamed Bazaz: Thanks a lot for sharing such useful information and lucid explanations.