Tag Archives: open access

How to Create a New Open Access Academic Journal with no Fees

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There are many concerns regarding for profit academic publishers realizing huge profit margins for distributing research products that cost them no money. That is, I conduct my research with my own resources and submit a manuscript detailing my results to a journal, but the journal did not incur any costs for my research. There are also many concerns regarding open access journals that charge high author processing fees (or APCs). A lot of the debates about all of these concerns seems to boil down these two options being the ONLY two options for publishing academic research. Just goes to show that no matter how many people with PhDs get involved it doesn’t mean that the problem will get solved. So, how might any one of us start our own peer reviewed open access journal with no APCs? A few different options it seems. Here are a few of my thoughts after thinking about this for a few hours one morning.  

First, a little bit about my background with academic publishing. I am a social psychologist that has been publishing my research in academic journals for over 20 years. I have been a reviewer, an associate editor, and was the editor of Personal Relationships (Masthead Editor between 2010-2014, but started processing new submissions in July 2008). As the editor of PR I put together a team of associate editors, worked with the for profit publisher to move the submission/review process to manuscript central (up to that point the submission/review process was run entirely via email and excel spreadsheets), and processed approximately 160 submissions per year for four years. That said, I am not up to date with using current publishing software and technologies and I do not have skills relevant to creating these technologies.  

So, with only my current working knowledge of available free online platforms and technologies, and not being in the publishing industry, I attempt to MacGyver (that should give some hints of my time here on earth, and means “to make, form, or repair (something) with what is conveniently on hand”) a new open access academic journal that has no author processing fees and has minimal expenses for the people operating the journal. My research has typically focused on close relationships (particularly romantic relationships), so I will create here a new journal called Close Relationship Science ™. Here is what I came up with, but I would love to hear how this could be improved or even replaced by something better. 

Getting Set Up

  • Write a proposal for the new journal (here are some things to consider)
    • Executive summary that outlines the vision of the new journal, including why it is being introduced, aims and scope, and so on
    • A longer plan that discusses each of the above points in more detail
      • Include a discussion of existing journals that publish similar material and their current status as “open vs. closed” re access and open science practices, controlled by society and/or for-profit publisher, and
      so on
      • Include a consideration of the growth of the journal in the first five years of operation
  • Share the proposal with a few others that you would like to recruit to help get the journal started
    • Have some meetings and establish a temporary board of directors for the establishment of the new journal
  • With the board establish some preliminary operating procedures regarding governance of the new journal as well as policies for the submission/review/publishing process
  • With the board decide on the initial editor (likely one of the board members, but who knows)
  • Set up the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform for the journal (see next section below)
  • Register domain name for the new journal (~$15 / year based on a few quick searches) and put together a basic website for the journal
    • I have limited technical skills, but even I at this point can put together a basic website and make it viewable by the world
  • Use the new website to advertise the existence of the new journal, its aims and scope, the board of directors, and the new editor
  • At the same time establish a social media presence for the new journal on various platforms
  • Put out a call for people to be part of the editorial board to review new submissions via various sources, such as social media outlets, society chat/email groups, personal emails from the editor/board members
  • When the team has been assembled, advertise that the journal is now open for new submissions

The submission/review/publishing process

  • One good option seems to be the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform. The open access journal Meta Psychology uses this platform, and my own University (Western University, in London, ON, Canada) “offers a no-fee local publication facility for students and faculty who wish to publish an online open access journal” (link here)
    • A list of journals here that Western University currently helps host/manage using the OJS platform
    • Because this is my fantasy, I will use the OJS platform and seek guidance from the librarians at Western to get the process started
  • Use available resources (e.g., librarians, web links, real people that are kind) to get the journal completely set up on the OJS platform. Here is one such resource.
    • Do as many trial runs with the website as needed with mock submissions to make sure it works properly for submitting authors, the editor, and reviewers
  • Use this system to accept submissions, assign reviews, and see submissions through to publication
  • All publications will appear online only and be assigned a DOI
  • Use the social media sites created for the journal to share news, insights, and publications

Overall it seems possible for one person to begin the process to create a new academic journal that is free to authors and has minimal expenses otherwise. Now imagine if one of the societies you are a member of put together a task force to look into creating their own open access journal that is free to authors and used some of your yearly membership fees (or some of those massive conference fees) to support the journal? It’s easy if you try. 

Week 10: Openly Sharing Research Reports/Manuscripts

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When I first taught this course, pre-print servers, or other online resources for sharing research reports and manuscripts, were not as popular or well known as they are today (Spring 2023). My goal with this class was to introduce the idea of sharing manuscripts prior to/after publication as well in lieu of publication in a peer reviewed journal. I showed them a few different options available at the time, including the one hosted by the library system at Western University (where we are located).

Overall the students seemed concerned about how it would be perceived to share a manuscript publicly before it was accepted for publication at a peer reviewed journal (e.g., “will the journal want to publish my paper if I have already “published” it?”). As part of this discussion I showed them sherpa romeo, a site that allows one to view the open access policies of a lot of journals and thus help one determine if they can/should share a preprint of a manuscript. The students were also concerned, however, with sharing a copy of the paper that was accepted for publication in case the journal would forbid this practice (and maybe even revoke acceptance of a manuscript); sherpa romeo is helpful here as well. A lot of fear associated with sharing outside the mainstream publication system! Fair enough, that is why I teach this material in the class and have an open discussion where I make sure to listen to the concerns of the students.

In this class I also discuss thinking beyond the typical research report as material worthy of sharing publicly. For example, stimuli used in the research that will not be part of the manuscript but others may want to use for their own research. I discussed how they could share this material in such a way that it could be both used but also cited. It was appealing to the students to think that they could have aspects of their research beyond the manuscript itself appear in, for example, google scholar and also be cited. The same goes for unique methods as well as data sets. Lastly, we discussed the idea of open peer review and associated pros and cons.

I have been sharing preprints for many years now, mostly (but not exclusively) on psyarxiv. Most of the manuscripts shared their are now published in peer reviewed journals, but some are not. For example, here is a brief paper now published at the Journal of Research in Personality that is also on psyarxiv. Google scholar tells me the published paper has been cited a whopping 4 times. But as you can see on psyarxiv it has been downloaded over 2000 times to date. This may mean absolutely nothing, but perhaps it means that the paper is having an impact not measured by citations alone. Also, you can see on psyarxiv that after the paper is published in a peer reviewed journal the author(s) can update the preprint with the published DOI. One example of a manuscript that exists only as a preprint focuses on a qualitative analysis of “ghosting” (in this case relationship dissolution by ending all contact with a partner) that was lead by former awesome graduate student Rebecca Koessler. This paper has been downloaded over 3000 times, suggesting it has been helpful in some way to others; if it had remained tucked away in our hard drives only it would obviously not have had this level of attention. Interestingly enough this preprint has also been cited 11 times according to Google scholar. From this perspective it was therefore of value to share this research as a preprint even though it was not published in a peer reviewed journal. My approach to open science practices has been to lead by example, so I appreciate that my own experiences with sharing preprints has resulted in noticeable attention to the research when the paper is published in a peer reviewed journal or not. I will likely use these papers, and others, as examples of sharing preprints if I teach this course again.

How to Publish an Open Access Edited Volume on the Open Science Framework (OSF)

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Edited volumes are collections of chapters on a particular topic by various experts. In my own experience as a co-editor of three (3) edited volumes, the editors select the topic, select and invite the experts (or authors), and identify a publisher. Once secured, a publisher typically offers a cash advance to the editor(s) along with a small percentage of sales going forward in the form of royalties. The publisher may also provide reviewing services for the collection of chapters, and will advertise the edited volume when it is released. The two primary ways for consumers to access the chapters is to (a) purchase the book, or (b) obtain a copy of the book from a library.

With technological advances it is now possible to publish edited volumes without a professional publishing company. Why would someone choose to not use a publishing company? Indeed, they are literally publication experts. Perhaps the biggest reason is that the resulting volume will be open access, or available to anyone with a connection to the internet, free of charge. There are also some career advantages to sharing knowledge open access. Also, a publishing company is simply not needed for all publication projects.

There are very likely many different ways to publish an edited volume without using a professional publishing company. Below, I outline one possibility that involves using the Open Science Framework (OSF). Suggestions for improving these suggested steps are welcome.

Steps to Using the OSF to publish an Open Access Edited Volume

  1. Identify a topic for the edited volume, and then identify a list of experts that you would like to invite to contribute chapters.
  2. If you do not have an OSF account, create one (it is free). Create a new project page for your edited volume, and give it the title of the proposed edited volume. Select one of the licensing options for your project to grant copyright permission for this work.
  3. Draft a proposal for your edited volume (e.g., the need for this particular collection of chapters, goals of the volume, target audience, and so on). Add this file to the project page.
  4. Send an email inviting potential authors, providing a link to your OSF project page so they can read your proposal.
    • You can make the project page public from the start and simply share the link, or,
    • You can keep the project page private during the development of the edited volume and “share” a read-only link to the project page with prospective authors only.
  5. Ask all authors that accepted the invitation to create on OSF account. Then create a component for each individual chapter; components are part of the parent project, but are treated as independent entities in the OSF. Use the proposed title for each chapter as the title of the component. Add the author(s) as administrators for the relevant component (e.g., A. Smith has agreed to author chapter #4; add A. Smith as an administrator of component #4).
  6. Ask authors to upload a copy of their first draft by the selected deadline. Provide feedback on every chapter.
    • One option is to download a copy of the chapter, make edits using the track changes option, and then upload a copy of the edited chapter using the same title as the original in order to take advantage of the “version control” function of the OSF (i.e., all versions of the chapter will be available on the project page in chronological order, with the most recent version at the top of the list).
  7. Ask authors to upload their revised chapter using the same title (again to take advantage of the “version control” function of the OSF).
  8. When the chapters are completed, “register” the project and all components. This will “freeze” all of the files, meaning changes can no longer be made. The registered components, or chapters, represent the final version of edited volume. Then…
    • Make all of the components, as well as the main project registration, public;
    • Enable the “comments” option so that anyone can post comments within each component (e.g., to discuss the material presented in the chapter);
    • Click the link to obtain a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for each component (i.e., chapter).
  9. Advertise the edited volume
    • Use social media, including Facebook discussion groups and Twitter (among others). Encourage readers to leave comments for each chapter on the OSF pages;
    • Ask your University to issue a press release;
    • Ask your librarian for tips on how to advertise your new Open Access edited volume (librarians are an excellent resource!!).

Prior to following these steps to create your own Open Access edited volume on the OSF (or by using a different approach), there are some pros and cons to consider:

Pros

  • You have created an edited volume that is completely Open Access
  • The volume cost no money to create, no money to advertise, and no money to purchase
  • Given that the chapters are available to a wider audience than a traditional edited volume released by a for profit publishing company, it is likely that they will actually reach a wider audience as well and have a greater scientific impact

Cons

  • You do not receive a cash advance or royalties
  • You do not receive any assistance from a publisher for reviewing or advertising
  • This approach is new compared to traditional publishing, and therefore you may be concerned that you will not receive proper credit from others (e.g., people evaluating your contributions to science when deciding to hand out grant funds, jobs, promotions, and so on)

Final Thoughts

There is usually more than one way to achieve the same aim. Professional publishing companies work with academics to create many edited volumes every year, but creating an edited volume does not inherently require the assistance of a professional publishing company. The purpose of this post was to present one alternative using the functionality of the Open Science Framework to publish an edited volume that is Open Access. I am sure there are even more ways to achieve this aim.