Publishing Articles Using Open Access

What is behind the motives in using Open Access?

• The increased digitization of academic sources.
• The particularly high costs to institutions charged by publishers for subscribed journals.
• The importance in providing free access to publicly funded academic research.

Why is Open Access important for academic sources?

• Open Access increases the exposure of publications and the number of citations in other studies and publications.
• Use of Open Access increases collaboration between researchers, as well as between researchers and other institutions.
• The Open Access policy answers to the requirement of public organizations and research foundations that condition their support for research grants upon full disclosure of the publications.
• Open Access for resources in the fields of health, welfare, industry, economy, or security can influence policymaking in these areas.
• Open Access allows unlimited access to research publications for anyone everywhere, including in developing countries.

 What are the main models to publish in Open Access?

There are two main models to publish in Open Access - the 'Gold' route and the 'Green' route.

• Gold Access Route
  • Publication of research in journals that are accessible and open to the public everywhere.
  • Payment is required for all publications of the article in the journal (APC - Article Processing Cost).
  • The payment is determined by the publisher.
  • The Library and Information System has reached agreements with several publishers to enable publication at no cost or at a discounted cost. For more details.

• Green Access Route
  • Deposit of research publications in a local database - the researcher's personal website or an institutional database (Institutional Repositories). In the institutional database established by the academic institution, researchers deposit their research and their publications are open for all.
  • Researchers are not required to pay for depositing their research and publications in the institutional database.
  • There are the two methods for publication in the 'green' route (depending on the publisher): The first is a waiting period (Embargo Period) until free access to publication is granted. The second way is an immediate publication of an early version (Pre-Print) of the research.   
  • Researchers must check the publisher's website for the exact conditions for publication.

Please Note:
Many online databases, including Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, APA-PsycNET and more, also index articles from peer-reviewed journals, which use the Open Access policy, as long as the databases meet the criteria required for scientific quality control and peer review articles.

These articles are marked on the search results screens using the following symbol (logo):

What are the risks involved in implementing the Open Access model?

• Open access publishing increases the risks of copyright violation by authors.
• Open access publishing makes it difficult to distinguish between peer-reviewed journals and journals that do not meet the required criteria.
• Publishing in Open Access may lead to a lack of proper quality control and proper peer reviews of the research and may even encourage researchers to publish their research in Predatory Journals.

What is a Predatory Journal?

A Predatory Journal is a free-access journal, in which the author of the article pays for its publication, but the editors do not carry out proper quality control or proper peer review of the publications.

A 'predator' journal can be identified by one or more of these characteristics:

• A journal whose editors are not known in their field of research, or a journal that is registered in a research organization without the acknowledgment and permission of the organization.
• A journal in which contact details are missing or inaccurate.
• A journal that does not have a bibliometric evaluation of the Impact Factor index, or a journal in which the Impact Factor is fake.
• A journal whose publications are scientifically at a low level.
• A journal based on the names of professional associations that are not recognized or are unimportant.
• A journal that does not appear in the DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)