The WUR Journal Browser, the road to Open Access

With the WUR Journal Browser you can select the appropriate journal for your Open Access article. In this search tool you’ll discover journals with a free Open Access option on request, publishers that give discounts on article processing charges, and journals that are cited by other WUR researchers. Impact factors of journals are added as well. Hopefully Wageningen University & Research staff and especially those who are in a tenure track position, will find this information useful.

What is the WUR Journal Browser

In the WUR Journal Browser you can browse through a collection of over 32,000 journals or look up a specific title. It contains all online journals for which Open Access deals have been negotiated. Journal deals involved in national agreements and deals made specifically for WUR are both included. The browser also covers journals from Scopus, Journal Citation Reports and the DOAJ.

In the Open Science blog and in the Library newsletter we’ll keep you informed on new deals or unsuccessful deals with publishers. Recently the VSNU did not succeed in a new agreement with the Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing. On the other hand deals with Oxford University Press and Springer were made in the beginning of this year. The browser has been updated already with journals of Springer. The deal with Oxford University Press is valid from 2019. We’ll add these journal titles to the browser in the beginning of 2019.

Select a suitable journal

Many WUR articles are already published Open Access. But, the WUR needs to increase its Open Access publications to meet the Dutch government’s requirement. They want all universities to publish 100% Open Access by 2020. Use the WUR Journal Browser to help us meet this goal!

For sharing your research output freely with a wide scientific community, we think the WUR Journal Browser is a valuable tool. You can look up details on Open Access options and costs, discounts on article processing charges and impact factors.

Use the search box to look up a title or subject. Specify your choice by filtering at the left side.

Search a journal or topic in the WUR Journal Browser.

Once you’ve selected a suitable journal, you’ll find additional information:

• Do I have to pay for making my article Open Access or can I get a discount?
• Is there an embargo period for making an author version of my article available via self-archiving (Green Open Access) and how long does it last?
• What are the journals’ recent articles about?
• How does it score in impact rankings?

Similar journals

A special feature is the option ‘Similar journals’. If you can’t publish in the journal of your choice, you could consider choosing one of the similar journals. Similar journals are journals that are most co-cited in WUR articles with the journal of your choice. Only journals with 10 or more co-citations are shown.

Find similar journals or check the impact factor.

Publishing Open Access without getting lost: Green, Gold, Gold Hybrid, and Platinum

Maybe you came across some concepts that are used in Open Access publishing. Here you’ll find the essentials on varieties for Open Access articles. These types of Open Access publishing are supported by the Executive Board of WUR. The new policy provides that WUR research output, whenever possible, is freely available.

• Gold: the author pays to publish an article. The article is freely available for everyone, e.g. articles in PLoS ONE. In this case you you’ll find next to the journal title: Full APC costs for WUR authors (no discount).
• Platinum: Open Access journals that don’t charge article processing charges at all. These journals are usually financed by a university or a research organization. An example of such a journal is Conservation & Society. Wageningen professor Bram Buscher is one of the senior editors of this journal.  You’ll find next to the journal title: No APC costs. Before you submit an article, please check at the publishers’ website if the information is still up to date.
• Gold Hybrid: Corresponding WUR authors publish articles Open Access for free, because WUR or the VSNU made a deal with the publisher. You’ll find next to the journal title: 100% APC discount for WUR authors. Before you submit your article, please check  the publishers’ website to be sure that the information is up to date.
•  Green: It’s not possible to publish Open Access in the journal of your choice for free. You have to store the author version of your article (postprint) in the repository of the Library, according to the new WUR Open Access policy. The author version is the reviewed and accepted article, but it’s not in the publishers’ layout yet. When you send it to pure.libary@wur.nl, the Library takes care of the embargo period.

About

The Journal Browser is developed by WUR Library. Several other universities in the Netherlands have a personalised version of this tool. At this moment universities in Groningen, Delft, Enschede, Nijmegen, the VU in Amsterdam and the VSNU are using the open access tool.

Do you have questions? Or do you have tips to improve the WUR Journal Browser? Please send an email to journalbrowser.library@wur.nl