Publishing open access in neuroscience | Erin C. McKiernan

abernard102@gmail.com 2014-01-26

Summary:

"I would like to issue a call to action. Neuroscientists, it’s time to be open. Really, this is ridiculous. While fields like physics are making great strides in open access, we in neuroscience are locking away more research in subscription journals everyday, where many people around the world can’t access it, learn from it, or build on it. It’s just wrong. Period. So, take those manuscripts that are ready for prime time and submit them to open access (BOAI-compliant) journals today. It’s that simple. And one more thing, IGNORE impact factor. Yes, I said ignore it. Impact factors say nothing about the quality of the published science, and actually correlate highly with retraction rate. See this great post by Stephen Curry on why IFs should be scrapped. It is unfortunate that many in neuroscience still believe it’s necessary to publish in high-profile subscription journals like Neuron and Nature Neuroscience. (And unfortunate as well that many members of hiring and tenure committees think the same.) If you’re one of those people, you probably won’t be reading my blog for much longer. But before you go, I’d encourage you to read this piece by Michael Eisen on why you should consider changing your perspective. I want to believe that there are many neuroscientists out there who would like to support open access, but just aren’t sure where to submit their work. So, I’ve compiled a list of open access neuroscience journals. I’ve divided these up into three categories: (1) open access journals devoted to neuroscience, (2) open access journals which are not devoted exclusively to neuroscience, but publish research articles in the area as part of a broader portfolio, and (3) hybrid journals devoted to neuroscience which are subscription-based but offer an open access option. I have excluded journals from publishers such as Wiley or the Society for Neuroscience, which offer what they call an open access option, but under conditions which are not BOAI-compliant (see update 10/27/2012 below). I have also excluded Elsevier journals for two main reasons. First, I am one of over 12K researchers who have signed The Cost of Knowledge boycott refusing to publish, review, and/or do editing work for any Elsevier journal. The reasons for the boycott are explained in detail here. Second, unlike publishers such as Springer who clearly outline their open access policies and licenses, Elsevier has been reluctant to be so open (pun definitely intended). For more discussion of this, see posts by Mike Taylor over at SV-POW! (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5).  Finally, I have excluded journals from suspected ‘predatory’ publishers. You can refer to the table below, or download the full spreadsheet OANeuroscienceJournals in one of three available file formats on figshare (see update 10/27/2012 below)."

Link:

http://emckiernan.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/publishing-open-access-in-neuroscience/

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » abernard102@gmail.com
Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » peter.suber's bookmarks

Tags:

oa.gold oa.boycotts oa.signatures oa.petitions oa.elsevier oa.business_models oa.publishers oa.cost_of_knowledge oa.advocacy oa.comment oa.new oa.neuro oa.journals

Date tagged:

01/26/2014, 09:40

Date published:

01/26/2014, 08:44