Jennifer McKinnell
For researchers – early career researchers in particular – a new arrangement at McMaster University makes it easier to disseminate their work without having to incur the costs associated with publishing.
At PHRI Research Rounds this week, Jennifer McKinnell and Neera Bhatnagar, of McMaster University Health Sciences Library, elaborated on two new publishing agreements.
Running until Jan. 31, 2025, McMaster is in a pilot project with Public Library of Science (PLOS) that waives author fees – known as article processing charges (APC) – which average $3000 – $5000 USD depending on the journal.
Running until the end of 2024, authors from McMaster (and 70 other institutions within CKRN) can publish eligible articles to Wiley’s hybrid journals (but not their ‘gold’ journals) under an open license with no APC.
Neera Bhatnagar
With the overarching goal of improving the reach of McMaster’s research activity, the longer-term goals of the Health Sciences Library, say McKinnell and Bhatnagar, are:
- To extend open-access publishing opportunities to: graduate students; medical residents; unfunded researchers; and researchers with limited access to funding.
- To increase open-access publications in ‘gold journals’.
They provided a refresher to PHRI researchers on what exactly is ‘open access’ vs ‘hybrid’ publishing, and what is a ‘gold journal.’ (Full slides – download PDF.)
