Commercial and society publishers continue to dominate the academic publishing landscape but in the last twelve months, the number of open access journals listed in Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) has risen from 4300 to over 7000 journals.
What is so special about open access journals? To qualify for listing in the DOAJ, a journal must use a funding model that does not charge readers or institutions for access. Most are peer-reviewed or use editorial processes for quality control. Open access means increased visibility because the journals are available freely online. Subject coverage is extensive, which means there are a number of high-quality, scholarly journals of interest to the K-State community. Notable open access journals with high impact factors include PLoS Biology and Genome Biology.
K-State Libraries became an open access publisher in late 2007, founding New Prairie Press to support journal editors both at Kansas State and beyond. We have grown from two to six journals currently in production and two others preparing their first issues. We are also working with academic faculty to bring two new undergraduate research publications to our open access platform.
If you are involved with editing or publishing a journal at K-State and want to know more about moving your content to an open access platform like New Prairie Press, contact Char Simser at info@newprairiepress.org.
This is our last open access post for the week. Hope you enjoyed the series.
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