Trustworthiness of open access journals

The trustworthiness of open access journals can be assessed based on subjective, qualitative and quantitative indicators.

You can search the Publication Forum, maintained by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies and the Finnish scientific community, for journals, publication series and conferences. You can filter your search based on the Publication Forum level and the form of open access (green, blue, yellow, white) or availability in DOAJ.

Peer-reviewed, high-quality open access publications can be found in the international DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals). The database is relatively broad in scope, especially regarding international open access journals.

The trustworthiness of open access journals can be assessed based on subjective, qualitative and quantitative indicators. The following list contains examples for identifying high-quality open access publication channels. You can also contact the Library’s experts in open science and research by email: openaccess-info@helsinki.fi. 

Features of high-quality open access journals: 

  • The journal is peer-reviewed and can be found in DOAJ (DOAJ criteria for visibility). 
  • The journal is published by a member of the OASPA (Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association). 
  • As a minimum, the publication has been assigned to level 1 in Publication Forum. 
  • The journal is listed on Ulrichsweb (Global Serials Directory). 
  • The journal is listed in metrics and citation databases, such as the Web of Science and Scopus. 
  • The journal details (editorial staff, publisher, impact metrics, article charges) are clearly displayed on the website. Please note that article charges are not collected by all OA journals.
  • The journal has an ISSN and uses permanent identifiers, such as DOIs, in its publications. 
  • The editorial staff includes distinguished researchers in the field, and the journal has published high-quality articles written by well-known researchers. 
  • The peer review process is transparent and the principles followed have been described. Peer reviews usually take at least one month. 
  • Issues have been published regularly, and their long-term storage is handled appropriately. 
  • Manuscripts must meet high requirements. You can also review the percentage of rejected submissions. 
  • A high-quality journal rarely sends out aggressive marketing, for example by email. It attracts manuscripts and peer reviewers on its own merits. 
  • The journal refrains from publishing research papers that have already been published elsewhere (with the exception of publications popularising science). 

  • There are also various checklists that you can use to identify predator publications, such as Think.Check.Submit. Also have a look at the checklist for OA books and chapters.

You can check the ranking of key publications in different fields in Publication Forum, maintained by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies and the Finnish scientific community, which supports the quality assessment of publication channels.

The Forum follows a three-level classification: 1 = basic, 2 = leading, 3 = top. The service contains a broad range of Finnish journals, monograph series, conferences and book publishers. 

Peer-reviewed, high-quality open access publication platforms can be found in the international DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals). The database provides relatively extensive information especially about high-quality international open access publications. 

A few fee-based services (such as Cabells) are also available for assessing the trustworthiness of publications.

Predator publishers is a term that refers to publishers that breach good scientific and scholarly practice and misuse new cost models. One might even call them outright impostors. The ulterior motive of predator publishers is usually money, which the operators strive to obtain through the collection of publication fees. 

Open ac­cess pub­lic­a­tion plat­forms at the University

The University of Helsinki provides platforms that can be used to publish articles, journals and books. 

Helsinki University Press offers the academic community a channel through which research results can be disseminated fairly and efficiently. HUP is an open access academic publisher of the University of Helsinki and Gaudeamus. All of its publications are peer-reviewed and openly available online.

The University of Helsinki’s open access digital publication platform and archive, Helda, offers a simple option for open access publication and long-term storage of materials. The open access publications archived in the TUHAT research database are automatically transferred to Helda. 

Editori, provided by Helsinki University Library, is a platform for open access journals and a tool for learning publication practices.
Read more on trustworthiness of Open Access journals