Gold Open Access Journals Research Articles

Public Funding and Open Access to Research: A Review of Canadian Multiple Sclerosis Research.

BackgroundMultiple sclerosis (MS), a progressive demyelinating disease of the brain and spinal cord, is the leading cause of nontraumatic neurological damage in young adults. Canada has one of the highest reported incidents of MS, with estimates between 55 and 240 per 100,000 individuals. Between 2009 and 2014, the MS Society of Canada provided over Can $90 million to researchers and, since 2013, has encouraged researchers to make both current and previous research products openly available.ObjectiveThe goal of the study was to determine the open access (OA) cost implications and repository policies of journals frequently used by a sample of MS researchers. This study benchmarked current publishing preferences by MS Society of Canada researchers by examining the OA full-text availability of journal articles written by researchers funded between 2009 and 2014.MethodsResearchers were identified from the 2009 to 2014 annual MS Society of Canada Research Summaries. Articles were identified through searches in Web of Science, Scopus, Medline and Embase (both via OVID). Journal level analysis included comparison of OA policies, including article processing charges (APCs) and repository policies. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.ResultsThere were 758 articles analyzed in this study, of which 288 (38.0%) were OA articles. The majority of authors were still relying on journal policies for deposit in PubMed Central or availability on publisher websites for OA. Gold OA journals accounted for 10.2% of the journals in this study and were associated with significantly lower APCs (US $1900) than in hybrid journals (US $3000). Review of the journal self-archiving options highlighted the complexity of stipulations that authors would have to navigate to legally deposit a version of their article.ConclusionsThis study found that there are currently researcher- and publisher-imposed barriers to both the gold and green roads to OA. These results provide a current benchmark against which efforts to enhance openness can be measured and can serve as a reference point in future assessments of the impact of OA policies within this field. With funding agencies worldwide releasing OA mandates, future success in compliance will require changes to how researchers and publishers approach production and dissemination of research.

The Impact of Gold Open Access Journals in Aggregators and Abstracting/Indexing Services

ABSTRACTGold open access (OA) journals are multiplying at a high rate across many disciplines as major publishers launch new titles to complement their traditional subscription-based titles. This is on top of the many independent Gold OA titles which are being produced by higher education, societies, and many other special interest groups. The number of Gold OA journals covered in abstracting and indexing (A&I) and aggregator databases has shown substantial penetration in these services. This coverage varies widely by discipline but the inclusion of OA content into traditional library services means that quality OA content can be more easily found using the products and services licensed and promoted by libraries and consortia.

Humanities and social sciences in the bibliometric spotlight – Research output analysis at the University of Vienna and considerations for increasing visibility

A quantitative analysis of the longitudinal research output development in the humanities and social sciences at the University of Vienna examined a six-year period (2007–12). According to target agreements between the rectorate and the faculties, the language requirement was met successfully with an increase of the non-German language (particularly English language) output, especially in the social sciences. The results also show an increasing trend line regarding the percentage of peer-reviewed articles and of publications indexed in highly regarded databases like Arts & Humanities Science Index and the Social Sciences Citation Index. The number of publications with a Digital Object Identifier or in gold open-access journals is lower in the humanities than in the social sciences. Social sciences have so far been moving faster in order to increase their dissemination and visibility in the new digital and internet era. Further strategies are recommended in order to increase the international visibility of the research output in the humanities and social sciences.

Current state of open access to journal publications from the University of Zagreb School of Medicine.

AimsTo identify the share of open access (OA) papers in the total number of journal publications authored by the members of the University of Zagreb School of Medicine (UZSM) in 2014.MethodsBibliographic data on 543 UZSM papers published in 2014 were collected using PubMed advanced search strategies and manual data collection methods. The items that had “free full text” icons were considered as gold OA papers. Their OA availability was checked using the provided link to full-text. The rest of the UZSM papers were analyzed for potential green OA through self-archiving in institutional repository. Papers published by Croatian journals were particularly analyzed.ResultsFull texts of approximately 65% of all UZSM papers were freely available. Most of them were published in gold OA journals (55% of all UZSM papers or 85% of all UZSM OA papers). In the UZSM repository, there were additional 52 freely available authors’ manuscripts from subscription-based journals (10% of all UZSM papers or 15% of all UZSM OA papers).ConclusionThe overall proportion of OA in our study is higher than in similar studies, but only half of gold OA papers are accessible via PubMed directly. The results of our study indicate that increased quality of metadata and linking of the bibliographic records to full texts could assure better visibility. Moreover, only a quarter of papers from subscription-based journals that allow self-archiving are deposited in the UZSM repository. We believe that UZSM should consider mandating all faculty members to deposit their publications in UZSM OA repository to increase visibility and improve access to its scientific output.

Open Scholarship Practices Reshaping South Africa’s Scholarly Publishing Roadmap

South African higher education institutions are the largest producers of research output on the African continent. Given this status, South African researchers have a moral obligation to share their research output with the rest of the continent via a medium that minimizes challenges of access; open scholarship is that medium. The majority of South African higher education libraries provide an open access publishing service. However, in most of these cases this service is via engagement with the green open access route, that is, institutional repositories (IR). Some of the libraries have piloted and adopted gold open access services such as publishing of “diamond” gold open access journals and supporting article processing charges. The experiment with publishing open monographs is a new venture. This venture must be viewed against the backdrop of the need for open educational resources (OERs). OER is an area that is very much in a fledgling stage and is gaining traction, albeit, at a slow pace. The growth of IRs, the growth in support for gold open access including the library acting as a publisher, the experimentation with open monographs, and OERs are all shaping South Africa’s scholarly publishing roadmap.

Predatory Publishing: How Not To Fall Prey

The number of gold open access journals, freely available journals sometimes supported by article processing charges, has steadily increased over the past decade. According to a recent report roughly eight percent of journals with impact factors are open access. With hundreds of identified existing predatory publishing companies, it is difficult to fault our teaching partners and/or students if they fall for a predatory publisher’s solicitation. Academic librarians are arguably any campus’ best-suited guides to the quickly changing academic publishing landscape and have much to gain from leading the discussion. Library sponsored workshops on open access publishing opportunities and hazards provide an excellent opportunity to further strengthen outreach to both faculty and graduate students. While open access publishing opportunities cannot be described as a simple duality, there are definite indicators that an opportunity may not be what it claims. Librarians must consider the nuance and grey area of academic publishing as the models of publishing continue to evolve. This article will (re)familiarize librarians with helpful tools that empower us to serve as effective advocates for members of our campus communities as they evaluate options for publishing their research.

Features of top-rated gold open access journals: An analysis of the scopus database

Abstract Purpose The goal is to identify the features of top-rated gold open access (OA) journals by testing seven main variables: languages, countries, years of activity and years in the DOAJ repository, publication fee, the field of study, whether the journal has been launched as OA or converted, and the type of publisher. Sample A sample of 1910 gold OA journals has been obtained by combining Scopus SJR 2012, the DOAJ, and data provided by previous studies ( Solomon, 2013 ). Method We have divided the SJR index into quartiles for all journals’ subject areas. First, we show descriptive statistics by combining quartiles based on their features. Then, after having converted the quartiles into a dummy variable, we test it as a dependent variable in a binary logistic regression. Contribute This work contributes empirically to better understanding the gold OA efficacy of data analysis, which may be helpful in improving journals’ rankings in the areas where this is still a struggle. Findings Significant results have been found for all variables, except for the types of publishers, and for born or converted journals.

Open Access Publishing in 2010: what publishers offer, what researchers want - First results of the SOAP project

The SOAP project (Study of Open Access Publishing http://soap-fp7.eu), describes and analyses the open access publishing landscape as well as exploring the risks and opportunities of the transition to open access publishing for libraries, publishers and funding agencies. Findings from the most detailed study so far of the current offering and success of gold open access journals, publishers and models will be presented, spotlighting the amazing difference between large and small publishing houses and learned societies, licensing practices and business models. The first results of a comprehensive survey of opinions and attitudes on open access of 50'000 researchers across all disciplines and around the world will be discussed. This largest survey to date shows that "one size does not fit all" in the open access need, attitudes and practices of researchers, and there is a myriad factors libraries, publishers and funding agencies have to consider to trace a path through these shifting sands.Note: The project, funded by the European Commission, comprise publishers (BioMed Central, SAGE Publication Ltd., Springer Science and Business Media), research institutions (CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research, Max Planck Society) and funding agencies (STFC - Science & Technology Facilities Council UK).

Deep imaging technology needed for NIH BRAIN initiative

This opinion piece discusses potential funding opportunities by the NIH BRAIN initiative to support the development of deep imaging technologies.

Errata: Tri-modal confocal mosaics detect residual invasive squamous cell carcinoma in Mohs surgical excisions

The <i>Journal of Biomedical Optics</i> (JBO) is a Gold Open Access journal that publishes peer-reviewed papers on the use of novel optical systems and techniques for improved health care and biomedical research.

Open access publishing and author rights: A local and comparative study of selected ARLs

This bibliometric study was performed to gain a better understanding of open access (OA) journal publishing at a large U.S. research university. While there is an increasing amount of aggregated data about OA publishing, there are few studies that examine local institutional OA publishing patterns. This study addresses that deficiency. Publications for Texas A&M University (TAMU) were located using Scopus and the Gold OA journals among those publications were identified. It was determined that approximately 9% of the articles published at TAMU were in Gold OA journals. Most of these journals were concentrated in Science (Q), Medicine (R), Agriculture (S), and Technology (T). The author rights of these journals were also examined and categorized. The majority of journals examined allowed authors to retain copyright, but more than 20% required the authors to transfer some or all of their copyright. To provide context and comparison, the percentage of Gold OA articles among 16 peer institutions, all public Association of Research Libraries (ARLs), was also determined using Web of Science. Gold OA publishing among the 16 peer institutions was between 4.99% and 9.45%. Scopus indicated a higher level of Gold OA publishing at TAMU compared to Web of Science.

Open Access Journals in Communication Studies: Indexing in Five Commercial Databases

This study investigates the degree of indexing of gold open access (OA) journals within the field of communication studies in five major commercial bibliographical databases commonly subscribed to by academic libraries and used by researchers and students. Results of the study indicate that 32 percent of the 147 gold OA journals identified were indexed in the five target databases. The communication studies databases provided the most complete indexing, while among the multidisciplinary databases, Scopus provided more coverage, compared to Academic Search Complete and Web of Science.

Green and gold open access in India

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the characteristics of 462 open access (OA) journals being published in India under the green, gold and hybrid models. The sample of journals was selected from DOAJ, IndianJournal.com and Open J‐Gate. Journal characteristics were measured in terms of growth, subjects, publishers, and citations under each model. While characteristics such as growth, subject, and publisher have been identified by exploring the journal's website only, the citation count of these journals has been calculated by using Google Scholar and the Indian Citation Index. The gold road is now the most popular form of OA publishing in the subcontinent. There is a great variation in the size of OA journals and in their publishers. One publisher has more than 77 journals, but 264 publishers publish a single journal only. Overall, the OA journal landscape is greatly influenced by a few key publishers and journals. While 43% of journals charge publication fees and the fees vary from as low as US$10 to as high as US$400, the highest impact factor of the gold OA journals has been noted as 0.58. The data presented here suggest that publication fees are not a major barrier to authorship within the fields of computer science, pharmacy, and medicine.

Errata: Concerted spatial-frequency and polarization-phase filtering of laser images of polycrystalline networks of blood plasma smears

The <i>Journal of Biomedical Optics</i> (JBO) is a Gold Open Access journal that publishes peer-reviewed papers on the use of novel optical systems and techniques for improved health care and biomedical research.

On the impact of Gold Open Access journals

Gold Open Access (=Open Access publishing) is for many the preferred route to achieve unrestricted and immediate access to research output. However, true Gold Open Access journals are still outnumbered by traditional journals. Moreover availability of Gold OA journals differs from discipline to discipline and often leaves scientists concerned about the impact of these existent titles. This study identified the current set of Gold Open Access journals featuring a Journal Impact Factor (JIF) by means of Ulrichsweb, Directory of Open Access Journals and Journal Citation Reports (JCR). The results were analyzed regarding disciplines, countries, quartiles of the JIF distribution in JCR and publishers. Furthermore the temporal impact evolution was studied for a Top 50 titles list (according to JIF) by means of Journal Impact Factor, SJR and SNIP in the time interval 2000–2010. The identified top Gold Open Access journals proved to be well-established and their impact is generally increasing for all the analyzed indicators. The majority of JCR-indexed OA journals can be assigned to Life Sciences and Medicine. The success-rate for JCR inclusion differs from country to country and is often inversely proportional to the number of national OA journal titles. Compiling a list of JCR-indexed OA journals is a cumbersome task that can only be achieved with non-Thomson Reuters data sources. A corresponding automated feature to produce current lists “on the fly” would be desirable in JCR in order to conveniently track the impact evolution of Gold OA journals.

Publisher’s Note: Experimental validation of an inverse fluorescence Monte Carlo model to extract concentrations of metabolically relevant fluorophores from turbid phantoms and a murine tumor model

The <i>Journal of Biomedical Optics</i> (JBO) is a Gold Open Access journal that publishes peer-reviewed papers on the use of novel optical systems and techniques for improved health care and biomedical research.

Errata:In vivo, real-time, transnasal, image-guided Raman endoscopy: defining spectral properties in the nasopharynx and larynx

The <i>Journal of Biomedical Optics</i> (JBO) is a Gold Open Access journal that publishes peer-reviewed papers on the use of novel optical systems and techniques for improved health care and biomedical research.

Diffuse optical imaging using spatially and temporally modulated light

The authors describe the development of diffuse optical imaging (DOI) technologies, specifically the use of spatial and temporal modulation to control near infrared light propagation in thick tissues. We present theory and methods of DOI focusing on model-based techniques for quantitative, in vivo measurements of endogenous tissue absorption and scattering properties. We specifically emphasize the common conceptual framework of the scalar photon density wave for both temporal and spatial frequency-domain approaches. After presenting the history, theoretical foundation, and instrumentation related to these methods, we provide a brief review of clinical and preclinical applications from our research as well as our outlook on the future of DOI technology.

Special Section Guest Editorial: Photoacoustic Imaging and Sensing

The <i>Journal of Biomedical Optics</i> (JBO) is a Gold Open Access journal that publishes peer-reviewed papers on the use of novel optical systems and techniques for improved health care and biomedical research.

Errata: &lt;italic&gt;In vivo&lt;/italic&gt; measurement of the shape of the tissue refractive-index correlation function and its application to detection of colorectal field carcinogenesis

The <i>Journal of Biomedical Optics</i> (JBO) is a Gold Open Access journal that publishes peer-reviewed papers on the use of novel optical systems and techniques for improved health care and biomedical research.