This 3 minute short video provides a brief history of why open access is vital to the academic community.
Simply select one of the above tabs for tools that can help you to verify or critically evaluate the legitimacy of an Open Access journal and to determine if the journal is right for your research and publication.
The objectives of this guide:
The short video below reviews the process of evaluating if a journal is right for your research and publication. In addition, this page includes an easy-to-use checklist to determine if a journal can be trusted.
A coalition of scholarly publishers and associations work together to create a simple checklist (Think. Check. Submit.) to help researchers identify trusted journals for their research. Watch the short 2 min video for tips to assess the credentials of a journal or publisher.
NLM Catalog: Journals referenced in the NCBI Databases
The characteristics of a legitimate OA journal found in the NLM Catalog
The characteristics of a questionable OA journal found in the NLM Catalog
Is your Journal indexed in any of these databases? Search in one of the databases below ito determine if your OA Journal is indexed.
Reputable Journal Impact Factor Metrics - Use one of the metric tools below to identify the impact factor of an OA journal.
Web of Science (formerly ISI Web of Knowledge) - Clarivate Analytics
Google Metrics
Other Resource Tools
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Overall Approach to Choosing the Journal
Source: Hansoti B, Langdorf MI, Murphy LS. Discriminating Between Legitimate and Predatory Open Access Journals: Report from the International Federation for Emergency Medicine Research Committee. West J Emerg Med. 2016 Sep;17(5):497-507. doi: 10.5811/westjem.2016.7.30328. Epub 2016 Aug 8. Review. PMID: 27625710; PMCID: PMC5017830.
Statement on Article Publication Resulting from NIH Funded Research.
NIH Grants Policy Statement - 8.2 Availability of Research Results: Publications, Intellectual Property Rights, and Sharing Research Resources.
NIH urges grantees to publish only in credible journals, Global Health Matters Newsletter, November / December 2017 | Volume 16, Issue 6.
Continuing Steps to Ensuring Credibility of NIH Research: Selecting Journals with Credible Practices. Open Mike blog post by Dr. Michael Lauer, NIH's Deputy Director for Extramural Research, November 8, 2017.
Calling on librarians to help ensure the credibility of published research results
National Library of Medicine (NLM)/NIH blog post, November 7, 2017
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