Myth: Open Access journals are not peer-reviewed and are of low quality.
Fact: Open Access journals, just like any other journal, can be peer-reviewed or not, depending on the journal policy. The fact that the journal is open access says nothing about whether it is peer-reviewed. Most scholarly open access journals are peer-reviewed. In addition, in hybrid journals (where some articles are open access and some are not) the open access articles are subjected to the same review as the subscription access articles.
The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association is a membership organization created to provide a forum for bringing together the entire community of Open Access journal publishers. Their mission is to represent the interests of Open Access (OA) journal and book publishers globally in all scientific, technical and scholarly disciplines. This mission will be carried out through exchanging information, setting standards, advancing models, advocacy, education, and the promotion of innovation.
Members are required to adhere to a code of conduct, so this membership list may be used to vet ethical conduct of OA publishers.
Directory of Open Access Journals is a service that provides access to quality controlled Open Access Journals. The Directory aims to be comprehensive and cover all open access scientific and scholarly journals that use an appropriate quality control system, and it will not be limited to particular languages or subject areas. The aim of the Directory is to increase the visibility and ease of use of open access scientific and scholarly journals thereby promoting their increased usage and impact. The journal must exercise peer-review or editorial quality control to be included.
Because many OA journals are newer than many others, it sometimes takes time for them to appear in directories or indexes. For this reason Qualitative Factors may be additional important indicators of the potential standing of OA journals.
