Publishing open access articles

You can reach us again at the e-mail address hibs.oa (at) haw-hamburg (dot) de.

Making academic knowledge and research findings freely available is the core focus of open access and an integral component of open science. There are various options for publishing your work as an open access article:

  • You can publish an article in a purely open access journal: gold open access. The articles in these journals are available free of charge and ideally published with an open licence. You can find additional information and tips on researching open access journals further down this page under the individual types of publications. As part of publisher agreements, memberships and HAW Hamburg's participation in the DEAL project, HAW Hamburg members can receive attractive special rates to publish in purely open access journals. You can find more information on the Publisher offers page.
  • Some publishers offer the option of publishing individual open access articles in subscription-based closed access journals. This is generally termed 'hybrid open access'. As a result of HAW Hamburg's participation in the DEAL project, HAW Hamburg members can publish open access articles at no cost in almost all subscription-based journals from Springer Nature and Wiley.Additional information about the DEAL project
  • Increasingly, repositories and pre-print servers are becoming established publication outlets for open access publications. The Covid-19 pandemic in particular has highlighted the importance of these platforms. A selection of relevant repositories is listed below. Generally, it is recommended that such platforms be used for the secondary or 'parallel' publication of your articles (green open access). This is also possible using REPOSIT, HAW Hamburg's institutional repository. In many cases the publisher policies permit this type of self-archiving. Through this practice you make your article available to a broad readership and increase the visibility and citability of your research. Additional information about 'secondary publications'

Before submitting a publication, you should be sure to read the notes on fake journals/predatory publishing in order to ensure that your article is published by a reputable publisher or publishing outlet.

Outlets for open access publications

Publishers

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Open access journals and monographs

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Mega-journals

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Repositories and pre-print servers

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Article processing charges for open access publications

Open access publications are always free of charge for readers. However, these publications still have production costs similar to those of traditional publications – e.g. for layout, peer-review organisation, maintenance of the technical infrastructure, etc. These costs are generally covered via a publication fee (so-called 'article processing charge') charged by the publisher, which must usually be paid by the author or their institution.

Publishers provide general information about the article processing charges on the websites of the individual journals. These fees range from a few hundred euros to large four-digit amounts and vary significantly between the various publishers and journals. Publication fees are generally also charged for hybrid open access articles, which are individual open access articles in subscription-based journals.

As a result of its participation in the DEAL project and special rate agreements with publishers such as MDPI and SAGE, HAW Hamburg is able to provide its members with significant discounts for open access publications, and in some cases complete coverage of the fees for hybrid open access articles.