How do I start a new peer-reviewed open access journal?

Question

I'm an academic and would like to start a scholarly journal. My reasons are manyfold: primarily I want an open access journal, and think that my field needs an own journal.

How do I start a new open access journal?

Related: How to create an editorial board for a new journal How to start a new journal is actually a pretty good question - I'm surprised we don't yet have a question on this. +1. — Stephan Kolassa, Apr 22 '16 at 16:45
Anyone can create a journal - all you need is a website to host papers and an email address for submissions. However, if you want it to be taken seriously, you need to convince respected people to serve on the editorial board and/or submit papers. That can be very difficult as it requires you to be well-connected and respected yourself. — Thomas, Apr 22 '16 at 17:19
@StephanKolassa sorry, when I googled it I couldn't find anything about it. And to be honest: the titles on the other questions don't sound like how to start a open access journal. — Amabile Scientius, Apr 22 '16 at 17:20
@AmabileScientius You might like to read this: http://www.nature.com/news/leading-mathematician-launches-arxiv-overlay-journal-1.18351 — Thomas, Apr 22 '16 at 17:25
This new journal uses "scholastica": https://gowers.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/discrete-analysis-an-arxiv-overlay-journal/. — bmurph, Apr 22 '16 at 20:51
Once your journal is up and running, I would suggest applying to DOAJ https://doaj.org/ — Emilie, Apr 28 '16 at 18:46
You might try contacting other academics who started their own journal. For example, in the last year the Open Journal of Astrophysics launched. I don't know much about it, but they likely went through / are going through similar issues: http://astro.theoj.org/about — Paul T., Apr 29 '16 at 18:28
@StephanKolassa we have already a question on this: Steps for creating a scientific journal (duplicate) marked as duplicate of How is a new academic journal born?. — Cape Code, Apr 30 '16 at 08:14
There is already a wealth of journals. More than we could possibly need. Are you positive that your work cannot find home in an existing, respected journal? — Cape Code, Apr 30 '16 at 08:19
I have enough reputation now to post comments on topic (don't know how that happened though). http://megamozg.ru/post/7612/ — This article, written in russian, covers topic of creating scientific journal from technical side (software, typesetting, registering in things like DOI and ISSN). Should i delete same message posted previusly as an answer? — Leonid, May 06 '16 at 20:02

score 11 · Answer 1 · 2016-04-28T15:20:33.077

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You shouldn't do this alone if you want to have a respectable open access (OA) journal in your field. The first time after launching a journal is critical: You need a good editorial board and a sustained amount of good submissions until you achieve a good impact factor. This is pretty much impossible without the help of an organization or a professional publisher.

You are probably a member of some kind of scientific society which is active in your field. I suggest that you get some other members on board with this idea and lobby for the society starting an OA journal. There are quite a few OA journals that have been started like this. An example from my field are the EGU's open access journals, which are a huge success.

edited Apr 28 '16 at 15:20

answered Apr 28 '16 at 14:59

Starting something like JACS (journal of the American chemical society) or Science (from the American Association for the Advancement of Science) but using open access licensing seems like a good approach. In my experience there is also more than enough room for own initiatives in the framework of these professional organizations, especially if they're not that big. – VonBeche Apr 28 '16 at 15:08
@VonBeche I had in mind something like the EGU journals, which are quite successful. – Apr 28 '16 at 15:13

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 30 '16 at 15:47

Starting an open access journal will require a significant amount of time from a dedicated group of people with expertise in diverse areas. A great resource I found that explains this process in detail is "Starting an Open Access Journal, a step-by-step guide". In addition, there are many books on the topic as well, and online resources which I will list at the end.

Why do you want to start an open access journal? To promote scholarly research in your field, to allow dissemination of knowledge, or to increase your own prestige within the scientific community? It may be possible that you will find your efforts more rewarding and fruitful if you are able to contribute to an open access journal. I have listed a few resources below:

ArXiv.org - "e-paper" of scientific papers in math, physics, computational finance, computer finance. De Facto publishing platform for many fields.

oatd.org - Fantastic collection of Open Access Theses and Dissertations, free to search, download. Great resource for any open access researcher.

Wikipedia Directory of Open Access Journals - Before you begin further development on a new open access journal, be sure to check that a journal with your current focus is not already in existence. In addition performing this research will help you to form your open access journal if you decide to pursue starting an open access journal.

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 28 '16 at 14:35

See the list of "OA journal launch services" maintained by the Open Access Directory. http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/OA_journal_launch_services

If you learn about other, similar services not on the OAD list, you could help others by adding them. OAD is a wiki open to public edits.

Good luck.

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 10 '16 at 21:26

The free open source Open Journal Systems (OJS) (GitHub) software enables one to easily create and manage all the stages (submission, peer-reviewing, etc.) of an open access journal. It will even aid submitting it to the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 30 '16 at 14:39

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I am not having enough reputation to just post comment on topic. http://megamozg.ru/post/7612/ — This article, written in russian, covers topic of creating scientific journal from technical side (software, typesetting, registering in things like DOI and ISSN).

answered Apr 30 '16 at 14:39

Leonid

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Do you expect us to read Russian? – Nobody Apr 30 '16 at 14:47
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Check the section "Provide context for links" at http://academia.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-answer. – silvado Apr 30 '16 at 14:53
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@scaaahu I expect that users can choose what translate tools they prefer (google.translate and translate feature of some browsers are not only options). Google translated link – Leonid Apr 30 '16 at 15:05
At the very least, please explain what's in there in English in a brief manner. Please read the link @silvado provided above. – Nobody Apr 30 '16 at 15:08
@silvado Is "This article, written in russian, covers topic of creating scientific journal from technical side (software, typesetting, registering in things like DOI and ISSN)" not enough for "fellow users will have some idea what it is"? – Leonid Apr 30 '16 at 15:10
No. Not enough. You need to give us info about how to start a new peer-reviewed open access journal if you want to answer the question. – Nobody Apr 30 '16 at 15:12
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You've read to the second sentence as well, right? It starts with Always quote the most relevant part of an important link. – silvado Apr 30 '16 at 23:36
... few days off the computer and the bounty accidentally went to this. First time I have "awarded" a bounty for an answer that I have downvoted .. – mmh May 07 '16 at 14:57
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@scaaahu See this machine translation of the article. The article is very helpful. – Geremia Dec 09 '16 at 17:26

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 29 '16 at 13:53

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Here's a book:
Developing open access journals : a practical guide.
Solomon, David J. https://books.google.com/books?id=sbIVAQAAIAAJ&source=gbs_ViewAPI

answered Apr 29 '16 at 13:53

user53352

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I downvoted this answer because it is not self-contained and therefore not useful. It could be posted as a comment instead. – mmh Apr 29 '16 at 15:03

How do I start a new peer-reviewed open access journal?

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