Guides to open access publishing
Short, sourced guides for researchers who want to publish open access without paying fees, and without falling for predatory journals.
Open access: what it is, who pays, and how to publish for freeOpen access (OA) means research is free to read online and, in the full sense, free to reuse under an open license such as CC BY. Publishing still costs money: in gold and hybrid OA the author's side usually pays a fee, while in diamond OA an institution or community covers it, so neither authors nor readers pay.
Diamond vs Gold vs Green Open Access: What's the Difference?Diamond open access is free for readers and authors; gold makes the journal free to read but usually charges authors an APC; green means depositing a copy of your paper in a repository. Hybrid and bronze are the in-between cases.
How to check if a journal is indexed in ScopusLook the journal up by ISSN in a source that reads Scopus itself, such as the free checker on this site, Scopus Sources or Elsevier's monthly source title list, and make sure coverage is current, not just that the title was once listed. A “Scopus indexed” badge on the journal's own website proves nothing.
SCImago Quartiles Explained: What Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 Journals MeanA Q1 journal ranks in the top 25% of its subject category by SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) in a given year. Q2 is the next 25%, then Q3 and Q4. Quartiles are relative, set per category and recalculated every year, so the same journal can be Q1 in one field and Q3 in another.
Predatory journals: a 12-point checklist to spot themA predatory journal takes your publication fee while faking the peer review, editors, indexing or metrics it advertises. Run through the 12 red flags below, then verify each claim at the source: DOAJ, the ISSN Portal, Scopus and the Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker. No list can do this for you.