Academic Publishing

You are a graduate student working on a NSERC-funded project that aims to monitor how landscape changes are affecting wildlife habitat in Banff National Park. You are the first author on a journal article documenting some of the project's results, and you're not sure which journal to target for publication. Your goals are to: <ol> <li>Achieve a broad readership, including your collaborators from Parks Canada and environmental NGOs </li> <li>Publish in a well-respected journal that will be an asset to your career </li> <li>Comply with NSERC's Open Access Policy on Publications </li> </ol> You identify two journals that look like good targets. Remote Sensing of Environment is a prestige journal in your field, but you're not sure if it complies with OA requirements or if your non-academic colleagues would have access to it. Remote Sensing is a fully Open Access journal but you aren't sure if it is as well-respected in your field. Which journal do you decide to investigate? [[Remote Sensing of Environment]] [[Remote Sensing]]

This journal charges a <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/apc="_blank">1600 CHF fee</a> per accepted article. Article processing charges are an eligible expense for TriCouncil grants. If you do not have any more grant funding available to pay for the fees, the University of Calgary's <a href="http://library.ucalgary.ca/open-access-authors-fund="_blank"> Open Access Authors Fund</a> may be able to cover your costs. Good luck with your article!

<ul> <li>Talk to your peers and mentors. Do they know of anyone on the editorial board? Have they read or cited this journal?</li> <li><a href="http://library.ucalgary.ca/services/consult" target="_blank">Ask a librarian</a>. They will be able to help you assess the journal and tell you whether it is indexed in reputable databases.</li> </ul>

Remote Sensing of the Envrionment is a well-established journal in your research area. The University of Calgary Library subscribes to this journal (paying about 5564 USD/year), but most of its content is not available to non-subscribers. You have the option to pay 3800 USD to make your individual article Open Access, but this journal is not eligible for the University of Calgary's Open Access Authors Fund because it is a "hybrid" journal. You don't have enough grant funding to cover this fee. What do you do? Give up on this journal and take a look at [[Remote Sensing]] I've heard that I can self-archive my work and still comply with the Tri-Council Policy. [[Investigate self-archiving ->Self archiving]]

Remote Sensing is a fairly new, fully open access journal. It makes all accepted articles immediately free to read upon publication. (Gold open access) Your Principal Investigator doesn't know much about it and asks you to make sure it is legitimate. Ways to assess a journal prior to submission: <ul> <li>Check to see if it is listed in the <a href="https://doaj.org/" target="_blank">Directory of Open Access Journals</a>. The DOAJ screens Open Access journals for quality.</li> <li>Have a good look at the journal's <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/" target="_blank">website</a>. It should contain: <ul> <li>a clear and appropriate scope;</li> <li>an editorial board with recognized experts and current contact information for them;</li> <li>transparent information about whether any author fees are charged;</li> <li>a description of the peer review process used by the journal.</li></ul> <li>did the journal solicit you to contribute? If a call for submissions did not come from a trusted source, treat it as spam.</li> </ul> What do you do? [[I think this journal is legit. I'm going to submit my paper!]] [[I'm still not sure if this journal is a good fit. What should I do?]]

Self-archiving means that you post a version of your paper to an institutional or disciplinary repository. (Green open access) The Tri-Council policy requires that a version of your paper be archived within 12 months of publication. What type of self archiving is permitted by Remote Sensing of Environment? <ul> <li>Check on the <a href="http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.php="_blank">Sherpa-Romeo database</a>. This database lists the copyright and self-archiving policies of publishers and journals.</li> <li>This journal does allow you to archive the accepted manuscript (the version after peer review but before publisher layout and copyediting) on a repository. <li>You learn that this journal has a 24 month embargo policy, meaning that you cannot open up access until two years after the article is published. This is not compliant with the Tri Council Policy.</li> </ul> What do you do? I really want to publish in this journal. I'm going to submit there anyway and try and [[negotiate with the journal ->Author Rights]] if my article is accepted. I think that a [[fully open access journal->Remote Sensing]] would be a better option for me.

Once you express your scholarly work in a fixed form (e.g. a journal article) you own the copyright to that work. However, most traditional publisher ask authors to transfer copyright from the author(s) to the publishers. This will restrict what you can do with the published version of your article. After your article is accepted, but before you sign a copyright transfer agreement, you can try to negotiate these rights. The <a href="http://www.carl-abrc.ca/doc/EngPubAgree.pdf" target="_blank">Canadian Author's Addendum</a> is easy to fill out and attach to your copyright transfer agreement. It's worth a try!