Capstone Resources

Jane is a tool that is designed to help you choose a journal in which to publish based on the topic of your paper or to identify other authors who publish in the same field.  It is a free resource by the Biosemantics Group located in the Netherlands.

Open Access publishing enables the free, immediate, and online availability of research and scholarly products. Open Access journals have been successfully producing and disseminating high quality research for over a decade. The Directory of Open Access Journals currently lists over 11,000 vetted Open Access Journals.

There are different business models that support Open Access publishing.

• Full Open Access journals make all of their content immediately openly available at the time of publication.  These journals do not operate on a traditional subscription model but instead levy Article Processing Charges (APCs) to cover publication costs. Note that not all Full Open Access journals impose APCs.
• Hybrid Open Access journals are subscription-based journals which give authors the option to purchase immediate open access to their papers. Only those papers that have paid-APCs will be openly available at the time of publication. Hybrid journals are effectively paid twice for their Open Access content. APCs for both Full Open Access and Hybrid Open Access range between $500 and $5,000.
• Embargoed Open Access journals are subscription-based journals that make their content openly available after a limited embargo period. In this model, new content is only available to subscribers, while older content is openly accessible. There are no APCs for embargoed content.  

Predatory Publishers are publishers that charge APCs for Open Access publishing without providing the editorial and administrative services associated with legitimate journals.  Predatory publishers engage in unethical or questionable practices to solicit and process content, such as:

• Eliminating or automating peer review
• Misrepresenting editorial boards and impact metrics
• Not submitting content to major indexing and abstracting databases
• Cloaking APCs until the article has been published
• Harassing authors to submit manuscripts or submit payment.

Not all Open Access journals are predatory. Predatory publishers are an aggressive exception. Authors should evaluate each venue they consider for publication before submitting a manuscript. There are several resources to help authors distinguish an ethical publisher from an unethical one.

• Think. Check. Submit. provides a checklist of quality indicators for a journal.
• Open Access Journal Quality Indicators is a listing of positive and negative indicators of journal quality.
• Directory of Open Access Journals is a database of high-quality, peer-reviewed Open Access journals.
• Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association is a group of committed Open Access publishers with criteria for membership and a code of conduct.