Publishing in Open Access Journals
Charité and BIH support open access to scientific knowledge and have signed the Berlin Declaration 2018. The Open Access Transformation measures are coordinated by the Open Access Team of the Medical Library. The Berlin Senate adopted an OA strategy for Berlin in 2015, and the goal of 60% freely accessible publications in 2020 stated there has been achieved for Charité (see dashboards of the Medical Library and the QUEST Center).
The Charité Medical Library oversees the topic of Open Access and advises you on all issues related to Open Access publishing via openaccess@charite.de.
Berlin Universities Publishing
Since 2022, the institutions of the Berlin University Alliance jointly operate the Open Access publisher Berlin Universities Publishing (BUP). This publishing house provides a platform that researcher communities can use to publish their own open access journals. The publishing model, the so-called “diamond open access”, does not rely on fees from authors or readers, but requires editors to take on additional tasks beyond peer review organization, like copy-editing and typesetting. Besides journals, BUP also publishes Open Access books. While publication itself is, as for journal articles, free of charge, supplementary services, such as copy-editing, typesetting, and layout, can be purchased for a fee.
Predatory Open Access
So-called predatory journals are journals with no or inadequate quality assurance procedures. Like many OA journals, they are based on the APC funding model, i.e. the author pays publication fees for publication in these journals. The term predatory publishing has become established for this practice.
Predatory journals FAQ
Predatory journals FAQ
How do I recognise predatory journals?
You should be careful, if:
- a journal/publisher keeps sending emails - almost like spam - and aggressively soliciting submissions
- the title of a journal or the design of the website is strongly reminiscent of a well-known journal
- the review and release of an article takes place within the shortest time
- the website of the journal contains many grammar and spelling mistakes
- the journal is not indexed in Pubmed or other databases you normally use
The following online offers can help you to assess the seriousness of a journal:
- The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) only lists journals that apply quality assurance procedures
- The checklist Think. Check. Submit. offers a comprehensive list of criteria for evaluating the trustworthiness of a journal
- Journals that are members of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) can be classified as harmless
Are Open Access journals generally of poor quality?
No. Precisely because critics like to use predatory publishing as an argument against Open Access, it is important to say that most Open Access journals have the same high quality standards as conventional journals and that their quality assurance procedures are in no way inferior to those of closed journals.
Predatory conferences
There are also some non-serious providers in the field of conferences. Here, websites are created with sham conferences on which scientists are sometimes listed as speakers or members of the organising committee without ever having heard of them. Or conferences are announced, which are then postponed at short notice. You should get suspicious, if:
- you do not know the organisation organising this conference
- your colleagues do not know the conference
- you cannot find all the details of the conference (e.g.: attendance fees, submission date, conference date, venue)
- you cannot find clear information on the timetable and agenda of the conference