Feature: Open Access - Part 2: Specific Journals

While forced migration researchers publish in a wide variety of scholarly journals that cover the full gamut of subject areas, I thought it might be useful to list some of the Gold OA titles specific to our field of study, as well as the self-archiving policies (Green OA) of key conventional journals.

1.  Open access journals (English-language titles that have been referenced on this blog over the past year):

Journal	Publisher	Peer review?	License?	Charges?
Conflict & Health	BioMed Central	Yes	CC BY	US$1690/ £1115*
Diversities	UNESCO	Yes	No; copyright w/ publisher	None
Ìrìnkèrindò: J. of African Migration	Ìrìnkèrindò	Yes	No; copyright w/ publisher	None
IZA J. of Migration	IZA-Institute for the Study of Labor/Springer	Yes	CC BY	Yes, but paid by IZA
J. of Humanitarian Assistance	Feinstein International Center	No	No, but copyright w/ author	None
J. of Internal Displacement	EV Research Inc.	Yes	CC BY-NC-ND	None
Mashriq & Mahjar: J. of Middle East Migration Studies	Khayrallah Program for Lebanese-American Studies, North Carolina State University	Yes	No; copyright w/ publisher	None
Refuge: Canada's J. on Refugees	Centre for Refugee Studies	Yes	No: copyright w/ publisher	None
Stability: International J. of Security & Development	Ubiquity Press	Yes	CC BY	£100**

*As of 21 March 2013 (source)

**As of 27 March 2013 (source)

While this is not a comprehensive listing of Gold OA journals in which forced migration researchers potentially might publish, the titles highlighted here help to illustrate the various shades of Open Access that exist, specifically, the distinction made between "gratis OA" and "libre OA":

"Gratis OA removes price barriers but not permission barriers. It makes content free of charge but not free of copyright or licensing restrictions. It gives users no-fee access for reading but no more reuse rights than they already had through fair use or the local equivalent. ...By contrast, libre OA removes price barriers and at least some permission barriers. It lifts at least some copyright and licensing restrictions and permits at least some uses beyond fair use. " (Source: Peter Suber, 2008)

The RCUK policy has expressed a preference for the CC BY license, which can be equated with "libre OA."  So it would seem that authors with RCUK funding would likely not be able to publish in most of the OA journals listed above.  These titles are also the ones that, for the most part, do not charge APCs!

Many other OA journals do carry a CC BY license; these can be browsed on DOAJ.  And here is a list of other OA journals that forced migration authors have published in.


2.  Self-archiving policies of conventional journals

Journal	Publisher	Deposit postprint?	SS&H embargo period for IR?	Hybrid option available?
Disasters	Wiley	Yes	24 months	Yes/US$3000
European J. of Migration & Law	Brill	Yes	None	Yes/US$2800
Georgetown Immigration Law J.	Georgetown University	No	n/a	No
International J. of Migration, Health & Social Care	Emerald	Yes	None	No
International J. of Refugee Law	Oxford University Press	Yes	24 months	No
International Migration	Wiley	Yes	24 months	Yes/US$3000
International Migration Review	Wiley	No?	n/a	No
International Review of the Red Cross*	Cambridge University Press	Yes	None	Yes/US$2700/£1695
Intervention*	Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins	No?	n/a	No
J. of Ethnic & Migration Studies	Taylor & Francis	Yes	18 months	Yes/US$2950/£1788
J. of Immigrant & Refugee Studies	Taylor & Francis	Yes	18 months	Yes/US$2950/£1788
J. of International Humanitarian Legal Studies	Brill	Yes	None	Yes/US$2800
J. of International Migration & Integration	Springer	Yes	None for author website; 12 months for IR	Yes/US$3000
Journal of Refugee Studies	Oxford University Press	Yes	24 months	Yes/US$3000/£1700
Migration Studies	Oxford University Press	Yes	24 months	No
Refugee Survey Quarterly	Oxford University Press	Yes	24 months	No
Social Science & Medicine	Elsevier	Yes	36 months (for RCUK mandate!); none for everyone else	Yes/$3000

*The InternationalReview of the Red Cross and Intervention provide delayed "gratis OA" to the full-texts of articles at alternate web sites.  

Notes: 
- SS&H refers to social sciences and humanities journals.
- I could not find specific information regarding the self-archiving of postprints for IMR and Intervention, hence the ?.
- The information above could very well change, but I believe it is fairly accurate at the time of this writing.  I used both the individual journal web sites and Sherpa RoMEO as sources.  Kudos to OUP for making its self-archiving policies the easiest to find!  With others, a lot of digging was required!

Some observations:  Most conventional journals listed above allow authors to deposit postprints in a repository.  However, there is the question of embargo periods, i.e., the period of time that must pass before a postprint can be deposited.  The RCUK policy is a bit confusing on this point; it seems to suggests that in certain situations, it would be okay with a 24-month embargo period (for SS&H journals), but ideally the embargo should be more in the range of 6-12 months (see p. 6 of the policy).

Brill, Cambridge University Press, and Emerald are the most flexible, imposing no embargo periods on the deposit; Springer requires an embargo period of 12 months for posting in an IR (but none for posting on an author's web site).  OUP, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley have embargo periods ranging from 18-24 months, so their journals may or may not qualify!  Elsevier's journal - with an embargo period of 36 months! - clearly would not.

For some, the solution might be to go with a hybrid OA option, which most of the journals above offer, upon payment of an APC.

UK-based researchers who receive RCUK funding no doubt have many questions about how to comply with the new policy that comes into effect on April 1st.  However, it has been recognized that a transition period will be needed to sort out many of the points raised in the policy.  Hopefully, this process will help to produce a consensus on the best way to provide Open Access in a way that accommodates all stakeholders!  (Is that pie in the sky, or what!)

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.