Open Access Research Publishing

Open Access (OA) refers to free, immediate, permanent, online access to digital full-text scientific and scholarly material, primarily research articles published in peer-reviewed journals. There are limited copyright and licensing restrictions on open-access articles, meaning that anyone with Internet access may read, download, copy, and/or distribute them. A primary advantage to authors who make their articles openly accessible is that their research impact is maximized due to a wider audience.

Resources for WVU Faculty

Transformative Read & Publish Agreements

• American Chemical Society (ACS): the  ACS agreement allows WVU corresponding authors to publish open access articles in ACS journals with no article processing charges (APCs).
• Cambridge University Press: this agreement allows WVU faculty to publish open access (OA) articles in Cambridge University Press journals with no article processing charges (APCs). Please see the complete listing of Cambridge University Press titles which allow open access articles or read further about benefits of the Cambridge agreement. 
• Company of Biologists: this agreement allows for free and unlimited publishing of research articles by corresponding authors in all Company of Biologists journals.
  
• IOP: the IOP agreement allows unlimited open access publication of articles by corresponding WVU authors in 58 hybrid journals and 18 fully open access journals.
• Wiley: The Wiley Read & Publish Agreement has been discontinued, effective December 31, 2023.
  

WVU Library Memberships

• Open Library of Humanities
• A nonprofit, diamond open access publisher in the humanities and social sciences. Hosting 30 peer-reviewed academic journals (2024) funded by more than 340 libraries worldwide.
• Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (JAFSCD)
• WVU authors do not pay article processing charges, because we are a library shareholder

Reduced Author Fees

The WVU Libraries have negotiated reduced fees if you publish your work in the following open access journals:

• BioMed Central (BMC)/ Springer Open
• 15% discount on the Article Processing Charge when publishing in BioMed Central journals.
• MDPI (Multidiscplinary Digital Publishing Institute)
  • WVU authors receive a 10% discount on article processing charges

Author Fund— Discontinued

The WVU Libraries are committed to providing open access to research for anyone anywhere. In recent years the library has begun engaging in new read and publish agreements that will now have to be the manner in which we contribute financially to helping campus authors publish openly. The Libraries encourage you to include publication fees in grant requests and use University funding, such as the Eberly College Subvention Fund whenever possible. From 2016-2023, we offered an Open Access Author Fund (OAAF) which has been retired. Please see the above resources to support your open access publishing.

Predatory Journals

Beware of journals seeking your contributions via e-mail and then levying a fee for publication. These journals will not be listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals and will not have signed on to the various open access initiatives. Other warning signs:

• Very short turn-around time for peer review; comments from the editors are general and do not address specific problems, improvements, and concerns.
• The author fee is too high or too low. The industry standard is $1,000 to $5,000
• There is no editorial board listed on the page, or the credentials of the board do not match the subject area of the journal.
• An international journal is more suspect.
• The publisher does not match the agency receiving the funds; the publisher’s name is generic or is very close to a well-known organization.
• The title is close to a well-known reputable journal. For example, The Journal of Physical Education and Sports Medicine is very close to The Journal of Physical Education and Sport Medicine.
• The journal is new; volume 1 is within the last few years.

Additional Resources and Information

Still not sure if Open Access is for you? Learn about:

• the three  types of open access for journal articles and
• about  your rights to your published works.

Other great resources for open access information include:

• Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) provides excellent information and resources about open access, including a printable copyright addendum you can send to your publisher to make sure you retain the rights to archive and share your own work.
• The  SHERPA/RoMEO database provides information about the self-archiving policies for a variety of journals. 
• The Directory of Open Access Journals provides a comprehensive directory of all open access scientific and scholarly journals in order to increase the visibility, ease of use, usage, and impact of these resources.