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The 5 Best Platforms to Publish Your Academic Research

Academic research is a central component of scientific advancements and breakthrough innovations. However, your research journey is complex and ever-changing. You must take into consideration funding options, how to securely store your information, choosing where to publish your research, finding manuscript peer reviewers, and many more.

To keep up with the change, you and other researchers require modern, easy-to-navigate research platforms to help you uncover, store, verify, compile, and share content, data, and important insights to continue to carry out breakthrough research.

This article explains how to identify the best platforms for publishing your research and gives you a list of five platforms to help you publish. Towards the end, you’ll also see a mention of how Orvium can further assist you with publishing.

How to Identify the Best Platforms for Publishing

When trying to identify the best platforms for publishing your research, you have to consider several factors, including:

• Does the platform support your research journey ? Can you collaborate with other authors and researchers, discover public groups and research papers and manuscripts (including Open Access work), view interactive graphs, images, tables, etc., track citations, and build a professional research profile?
• Is the platform easy to use ? Does it offer rich functionalities that are easy to understand, and if so, which ones?
• Does it use artificial intelligence and machine learning ? Automated actions (email alerts, etc.) can help you unlock breakthroughs faster and deliver deeper insights.
• What security and governance does it have ? Platforms must be secure and compliant according to local regulations since researchers often deal with sensitive data.

The 5 Best Platforms to Publish Academic Research

Researchgate.

ResearchGate is a platform hosting over 135 million publication pages with a community of 20 million scientists. The platform allows you to show off your work, access papers and advice from other researchers, make contacts and even find jobs. Some of its more prominent features include:

• Dedicated Q&A section with searchable keywords to target experts in your particular field or area of study
• Ability to create a personal profile page where you can display all research-specific details about yourself, including up to five pieces of work (including datasets and conference papers)
• In-depth stats on who reads your work and the ability to track your citations
• A private messaging service that allows you to send messages to other researchers
• A comments section to provide feedback when viewing a paper
• A “projects” section to tell others about your upcoming work.

In addition, it's completely free to use!

Academia is a research-sharing platform with over 178 million users, 29 million papers uploaded, and 87 million visitors per month. Their goal is to accelerate research in all fields, ensure that all research is available for free and that the sharing of knowledge is available in multiple formats (videos, datasets, code, short-form content, etc.). Some of their more prominent features include:

• Mentions and search alerts that notify you when another researcher cites, thanks, or acknowledges your work, and automatic reports of search queries
• Ability to create a personal profile page
• “Profile visitor” and “readers” features let you know the title and location of those who visit your profile or read your papers so you can learn about their research interests and get in touch
• A “grants” feature to allow you to find new grants and fellowships in your field
• Advanced research discovery tools allow you to see full texts and citations of millions of papers.

The platform is based on a “freemium” business model, which provides free access to research for everyone, and paid capabilities to subscribers.

ScienceOpen

ScienceOpen is a discovery platform that empowers researchers to make an impact in their communities. The platform is committed to Open Science, combining decades of experience in traditional publishing, computing, and academic research to provide free access to knowledge to drive creativity, innovation, and development. Some of their more prominent features include:

• You can publish your most recent paper as a preprint that’s citable and includes a DOI to share with peers immediately and enhance visibility
• A multidimensional search feature for articles with 18 filters and the ability to sort results by Altmetric scores , citations, date, and rating
• Ability to create a personal profile with minimal upkeep necessary
• Access to a suite of metrics (usage, citations, etc.) of your publications
• Ability to follow other researchers to stay up-to-date on their work and expand your network.

The platform is free to use, although some features (like publishing your preprint) may cost money.

IOPscience is a platform that embraces innovative technologies to make it easier for researchers to discover and access technical, scientific, and medical content while managing their own research content. They participate in several programs that offer researchers in developing countries several ways to gain access to journals at little or no cost. Some of their other features include:

• An enhanced search filtering feature allows you to find relevant research faster
• A social bookmarking feature allows you to interact with other researchers and share articles
• Ability to create a personal profile, customize your alerts, view recently published articles within your field or area of interest, and save relevant papers or articles
• Ability to receive email alerts and RSS feeds once new content is published.

IOPscience is free to use and functions on an Open Access policy, which you can check here .

Orvium is an open, community-based research platform that allows researchers, reviewers, and publishers to share, publish, review, and manage their research. Orvium protects your work with built-in blockchain integration to ensure that you maintain the copyright of your work and not only. Some of our more notable features include:

• Access to a modern web platform with Google indexing, notifications, and mobile-ready features
• Ability to manage your entire publication process, with control over when you submit, receive peer reviews, and publish your paper
• “Collaboration” and “full traceability” features allow you to track your profile impact, get in touch with other researchers, and have ownership over your work
• Recognition badges or economic rewards are given when you peer-review.

Orvium is completely free to use.

Orvium Makes Choosing a Platform Easy

No matter what platform or community you choose to be a part of, you now know what you need to look for when choosing one. You also learned about five excellent platforms where you can publish your academic research. Orvium will remain your one-stop-shop platform for all your research needs. Do you want to know how Orvium and our communities work? Check out our platform or contact us with any questions you may have.

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How to Choose a Journal to Submit an Article

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After so much effort bringing together the perfect article, finding the best scientific journal to submit it to becomes the next big challenge. Which one will bring the deserved awareness to your research? Which one will enhance the visibility of your work? Which one is the benchmark in your investigation field? Choosing the right journal for publication might end up being more complicated than you think.

Article publishing. Why is it important?

The saying “publish or perish” might sound familiar to you – since a researcher’s recognition and career often depend on article publishing. But that doesn’t mean diving into the first chance that comes along. From aims to scope, values and ethical practice, there are many things to take into account before choosing a journal to submit an article. If you’re submitting a paper instead of an article, it is equally important to find the right journal for your paper .

Choosing a Journal for Publication

Elsevier offers a wide range of distinguished journals, and choosing the best one to publish your research paper is much easier with our support and guidance. Using the JournalFinder , you can match your manuscript and learn more about each journal available. Powered by the Elsevier Fingerprint Engine™, JournalFinder uses smart search technology and field-of-research specific vocabularies to match your paper to the most appropriate scientific journals in a few simple steps:

1) Enter the title and abstract of your paper

2) Find journals that are best suited for your publication

3) Ultimately, the editor will decide on how well your article matches the journal

To Find Out More About a Journal

In article publishing, choosing a journal for publication is a strategically important step to give your work the opportunity to shine and attract the attention of the right people. Thus, it is not a decision to make without spending some time researching the best available publications out there. Make sure to follow these tips to get even closer to the perfect journal for you:

• Read the journal’s aims and scope to make sure it is a match.
• Check whether you can submit an article – some journals are invitation-only.
• CiteScore metrics – helps to measure journal citation impact. Free, comprehensive, transparent and current metrics calculated using data from Scopus®, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature.
• SJR – or SCImago Journal Rank, is based on the concept of a transfer of prestige between journals via their citation links.
• SNIP – or Source Normalized Impact per Paper, is a sophisticated metric that accounts for field-specific differences in citation practices.
• JIF – or Journal Impact Factor is calculated by Clarivate Analytics as the average of the sum of the citations received in a given year to a journal’s previous two years of publications, divided by the sum of “citable” publications in the previous two years.
• H-index – Although originally conceived as an author-level metric, the H-index has been being applied to higher-order aggregations of research publications, including journals.
• Impact: Number of times an average paper in this journal is cited.
• Speed: The average number of weeks it takes for an article to be reviewed. Essentially, the average number of weeks it takes for an article to reach key publication points in the production process.
• Reach: The number of downloads at the country/regional level over the last five full years available. The number of primary corresponding authors at the country/regional level, over the last five full years available.

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How to Choose the Journal That’s Right for Your Study

How to identify and assess potential journals

There’s a lot to consider when deciding where to submit your work. Learn how to choose a journal that will help your study reach its audience, while reflecting your values as a researcher.

Why journal selection matters

Choosing a journal that’s right for your research can be more complex than it seems. You want to publish in a journal that will help your study to reach its intended audience. Your research has a better chance of attracting readers, accumulating citations, and impacting the field when your colleagues can easily find it. For some types of research, a more specific publication might be the best fit, while for others, reaching a wide audience is key. Also, you want to publish in a journal that matches your scientific values and principles of integrity.

1. Determining what you need from a journal

Start by thinking about your research and how it might best reach its intended readers. Consider your values and expectations. Take a moment to answer the following questions:

• What is the topic of your study?
• Is your article specialized or interdisciplinary?
• Is your article an incremental finding, or potentially considered a big breakthrough?
• Who is your audience? Does your article have a broad potential readership, or will it be of interest only to experts in a narrow area of study? How will readers discover your study?
• Does your funding come with any special requirements for publication (for example, some funders may stipulate that you publish the work under an Open Access license)
• How do you plan to share your study? Is it important to you to have the option to post a preprint, or publish your peer reviews
• Does the journal uphold the highest values of ethics and integrity? Are you prepared to meet journal requirements for licensing, published data, and ethical disclosures?
• What is your budget for publishing? 

Taking advantage of transfers

Submitting to a highly selective journal means your chances of acceptance are lower, and you should honestly assess your work against their subjective selection criteria. But that doesn’t mean publication will necessarily be delayed if your manuscript isn’t accepted. Many highly selective journals offer facilitated transfers to a journal whose scope and readership more closely match your study, so that you can try your luck at a top-tier journal without losing too much time.

2. Identifying potential journals

If you’re getting ready to submit a research article you’ve probably been working in the field for a number of years, and already have a few favorite publications. Still, it can be worth taking a moment to review the landscape and see what’s new. Established journals are constantly evolving and adjusting their scope, and new journals are starting all the time. Here are a few easy ways to discover new publishing opportunities:

• Online search. For a look at journals on the rise in your field, try searching for related articles published in the past 1-2 years. To find journals that are expanding into your field, search Call for Papers in your subject area. Review the publisher’s website to learn more about how your article will fit at the journal. (Journal blogs can also be a great source of information!)
• Word of mouth. Check-in with colleagues, labmates, mentors or collaborators. What do they see as the exciting journals in your discipline?
• Journal finding tools. Many websites track journal metrics and performance, including factors like speed, acceptance rate, and compliance with Open Science policies. Check out Think. Check. Submit.

In a 2020 survey of new PLOS ONE authors we asked which information sources authors used to identify potential journals for their manuscripts. Here’s what they had to say:

3. Deciding whether a particular journal may be right for your specific study

Next, evaluate the journals on your list against the needs you’ve identified for your study, together with your coauthors. Which journals best fit your target audience, topic, level of specialization, and funder requirements? If you’re unsure about fit, check the journal website and see if you can answer the following questions:

• What topics are within the journal’s scope?
• Who serves on the editorial board?
• Is the journal indexed in the databases that are standard in your field?
• Does the journal uphold the highest values of ethics and integrity?

Also consider:

• Will the journal provide article-level metrics, so you can track the impact of your specific study?
• Does the journal charge an APC, and how much is it? Are your publication fees already covered by a regional fee structure or institutional partnership agreement?
• Are there any additional fees (for example, for color figures or extra pages)?
• Does the journal offer the particular type of article that you have written? For example, do they publish meta-analysis, negative results, review articles, or protocols?

Avoiding predatory journals

Predatory journals accept articles solely for monetary gain and do not offer a real peer review process. Spotting predatory journals can be difficult, but there are some ground rules to help you get started. Look at the journal’s website: Is the peer review process clearly described? Is the editorial board listed? Is the journal indexed in databases like PubMed or Web of Science? If not, steer clear… 

The website Think. Check. Submit. can be helpful

The Dos and Don’ts of Journal Selection

• Take the time to investigate options that may be new to you
• Choose your first and second choice journals with care, taking the needs of your readers and funders for this specific study into account, as well as the type of article you’ve written, and journal scope and requirements
• Watchout for potential predatory journals that charge fees without offering reliable peer review
• Discuss your needs and priorities with your coauthors and achieve consensus about your submission choice

Don’t

• Submit the same study to more than one journal at the same time
• Submit to journals that do not publish your type of study or article
• Just submit to the most prestigious journals in order (e.g. top general science journals, top journals in discipline, others)

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The contents of the Peer Review Center are also available as a live, interactive training session, complete with slides, talking points, and activities. …

The contents of the Writing Center are also available as a live, interactive training session, complete with slides, talking points, and activities. …

The discussion section contains the results and outcomes of a study. An effective discussion informs readers what can be learned from your…

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Where is the best place to publish my research?

Identifying the best place to publish research involves consideration of many factors, including:

• Journal aim and scope
• Publication of similar work
• Journal rankings and measures of journal impact
• Demonstration of good publishing practices

Welch compiled the information below to help guide a researcher through the decision-making process.

 Think. Check. Submit.

“Think. Check. Submit. is a campaign to help researchers identify trusted journals for their research.  It is a simple checklist researchers can use to assess the credentials of a journal or publisher.”

 Retrieved from  http://thinkchecksubmit.org/about/

 Locating Journals

• Welch Medical Library Journals by Subject Select the subject to view available journals by subject. Journals are sorted according to the following journal rankings: Journal Impact Factor, Citescore, Scimago Journal & Country Rank, and Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP).
• Elsevier Journal Finder Enter the unpublished article’s title and abstract info into this tool to determine possible sites for publication. Note: Covers only journals published by Elsevier.
• Journal/Author Name Estimator Enter the unpublished article’s title and/or abstract to determine possible sites for publication. It only covers journals in MEDLINE, regardless of publisher.
• Springer Journal Suggester Enter the unpublished article’s title and abstract into this tool to determine possible sites for publication. Note: Covers only journals published by Springer.
• HelioBlast A search tool that allows you to paste in text and identify similar text in MEDLINE. Note: Only covers journals in MEDLINE.
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) Use the Browse Subjects feature, and select Journals to find quality Open Access Journals. Note: Covers only Open Access Journals.
• JANE Relies on data in PubMed to help you determine where to publish your research. Note: JANE tags journals indexed and found in MEDLINE and DOAJ.
• Edanz Journal Selector Allows you to search by keyword, journal name, abstract and more. Pulls results from publicly available data sources like Thomson Reuters’ annual Journal Citation Reports®.

Journal Metrics

• InCites™ Journal Citation Reports® Find a variety of metrics for journal quality, including impact factor, immediacy index, Eigenfactor score, and article influence score. Searchable by journal name and browsable by research category.
• SCImago Journal & Country Rank Access journal rankings based on citation data from the Scopus database. Journals can be grouped by major thematic areas and specific subject categories.
• Scopus In search results, click on the journal title to view journal metrics. Scopus will give you SJR (SCImago Journal Rank), IPP (Impact per Publication), and SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper) measurements.
• Web of Science In search results, click on the journal title to view journal metrics. In Web of Science, view its IF (Impact Factor) and JCR (Journal Citation Reports) rankings.
• Eigenfactor Find an article’s Eigenfactor ®  and  Article Influence Score ®  to evaluate the influence of a journal.

General Information About Journals

• JHU Catalog (Catalyst) : Use the “Journal title” search in the catalog to determine if the JHU Libraries subscribe to a particular journal.
• Journals in PubMed and Other NCBI Databases : Search the catalog of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) for journals referenced by NCBI databases, including PubMed.  Each catalog record indicates key journal details, including ISSN, abbreviations, and whether its articles are currently indexed for MEDLINE.
• Ulrich's Periodical Directory : Search this comprehensive database of serial publications for key details about journals, including previous titles, publishers, ISSNs, URLs, indexing, and English versions of foreign titles.

  Search for Open Access Journals

• Enago Open Access Journal Finder : Paste in content from your publication to access a shortlist of quality Open Access Journals that are relevant to you. This tool searches against DOAJ’s list of journals.

Publishing in an Open Access Journal allows you to share your work widely and bypass permission and paywall barriers so the public has greater access to your work. However, predatory publishers, many disguised as Open Access Journals, may solicit you for your research. If you encounter a potential predatory publisher, take the time to analyze the journal or publisher before submitting work to make sure they are not a predatory journal or publisher. Use the Think.Check.Submit method to assess a potential journal.

You can also take the following steps:

• Search DOAJ and MEDLINE to see if the journal is listed
• Search Google for the journal/publisher
• Look up the location of the publisher to see what appears on a map
• Look for spelling errors on the publisher's website and in the solicitation email message
• Check the editorial board for names you may recognize
• Ask your Welch informationist

How to Write and Publish a Research Paper for a Peer-Reviewed Journal

• Open access
• Published: 30 April 2020
• Volume 36 , pages 909–913, ( 2021 )

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You have full access to this open access article

• Clara Busse   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0178-1000 1 &
• Ella August   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5151-1036 1 , 2  

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Communicating research findings is an essential step in the research process. Often, peer-reviewed journals are the forum for such communication, yet many researchers are never taught how to write a publishable scientific paper. In this article, we explain the basic structure of a scientific paper and describe the information that should be included in each section. We also identify common pitfalls for each section and recommend strategies to avoid them. Further, we give advice about target journal selection and authorship. In the online resource 1 , we provide an example of a high-quality scientific paper, with annotations identifying the elements we describe in this article.

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How to Choose the Right Journal

The Point Is…to Publish?

Writing and publishing a scientific paper

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

Writing a scientific paper is an important component of the research process, yet researchers often receive little formal training in scientific writing. This is especially true in low-resource settings. In this article, we explain why choosing a target journal is important, give advice about authorship, provide a basic structure for writing each section of a scientific paper, and describe common pitfalls and recommendations for each section. In the online resource 1 , we also include an annotated journal article that identifies the key elements and writing approaches that we detail here. Before you begin your research, make sure you have ethical clearance from all relevant ethical review boards.

Select a Target Journal Early in the Writing Process

We recommend that you select a “target journal” early in the writing process; a “target journal” is the journal to which you plan to submit your paper. Each journal has a set of core readers and you should tailor your writing to this readership. For example, if you plan to submit a manuscript about vaping during pregnancy to a pregnancy-focused journal, you will need to explain what vaping is because readers of this journal may not have a background in this topic. However, if you were to submit that same article to a tobacco journal, you would not need to provide as much background information about vaping.

Information about a journal’s core readership can be found on its website, usually in a section called “About this journal” or something similar. For example, the Journal of Cancer Education presents such information on the “Aims and Scope” page of its website, which can be found here: https://www.springer.com/journal/13187/aims-and-scope .

Peer reviewer guidelines from your target journal are an additional resource that can help you tailor your writing to the journal and provide additional advice about crafting an effective article [ 1 ]. These are not always available, but it is worth a quick web search to find out.

Identify Author Roles Early in the Process

Early in the writing process, identify authors, determine the order of authors, and discuss the responsibilities of each author. Standard author responsibilities have been identified by The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) [ 2 ]. To set clear expectations about each team member’s responsibilities and prevent errors in communication, we also suggest outlining more detailed roles, such as who will draft each section of the manuscript, write the abstract, submit the paper electronically, serve as corresponding author, and write the cover letter. It is best to formalize this agreement in writing after discussing it, circulating the document to the author team for approval. We suggest creating a title page on which all authors are listed in the agreed-upon order. It may be necessary to adjust authorship roles and order during the development of the paper. If a new author order is agreed upon, be sure to update the title page in the manuscript draft.

In the case where multiple papers will result from a single study, authors should discuss who will author each paper. Additionally, authors should agree on a deadline for each paper and the lead author should take responsibility for producing an initial draft by this deadline.

Structure of the Introduction Section

The introduction section should be approximately three to five paragraphs in length. Look at examples from your target journal to decide the appropriate length. This section should include the elements shown in Fig.  1 . Begin with a general context, narrowing to the specific focus of the paper. Include five main elements: why your research is important, what is already known about the topic, the “gap” or what is not yet known about the topic, why it is important to learn the new information that your research adds, and the specific research aim(s) that your paper addresses. Your research aim should address the gap you identified. Be sure to add enough background information to enable readers to understand your study. Table 1 provides common introduction section pitfalls and recommendations for addressing them.

The main elements of the introduction section of an original research article. Often, the elements overlap

Methods Section

The purpose of the methods section is twofold: to explain how the study was done in enough detail to enable its replication and to provide enough contextual detail to enable readers to understand and interpret the results. In general, the essential elements of a methods section are the following: a description of the setting and participants, the study design and timing, the recruitment and sampling, the data collection process, the dataset, the dependent and independent variables, the covariates, the analytic approach for each research objective, and the ethical approval. The hallmark of an exemplary methods section is the justification of why each method was used. Table 2 provides common methods section pitfalls and recommendations for addressing them.

Results Section

The focus of the results section should be associations, or lack thereof, rather than statistical tests. Two considerations should guide your writing here. First, the results should present answers to each part of the research aim. Second, return to the methods section to ensure that the analysis and variables for each result have been explained.

Begin the results section by describing the number of participants in the final sample and details such as the number who were approached to participate, the proportion who were eligible and who enrolled, and the number of participants who dropped out. The next part of the results should describe the participant characteristics. After that, you may organize your results by the aim or by putting the most exciting results first. Do not forget to report your non-significant associations. These are still findings.

Tables and figures capture the reader’s attention and efficiently communicate your main findings [ 3 ]. Each table and figure should have a clear message and should complement, rather than repeat, the text. Tables and figures should communicate all salient details necessary for a reader to understand the findings without consulting the text. Include information on comparisons and tests, as well as information about the sample and timing of the study in the title, legend, or in a footnote. Note that figures are often more visually interesting than tables, so if it is feasible to make a figure, make a figure. To avoid confusing the reader, either avoid abbreviations in tables and figures, or define them in a footnote. Note that there should not be citations in the results section and you should not interpret results here. Table 3 provides common results section pitfalls and recommendations for addressing them.

Discussion Section

Opposite the introduction section, the discussion should take the form of a right-side-up triangle beginning with interpretation of your results and moving to general implications (Fig.  2 ). This section typically begins with a restatement of the main findings, which can usually be accomplished with a few carefully-crafted sentences.

Major elements of the discussion section of an original research article. Often, the elements overlap

Next, interpret the meaning or explain the significance of your results, lifting the reader’s gaze from the study’s specific findings to more general applications. Then, compare these study findings with other research. Are these findings in agreement or disagreement with those from other studies? Does this study impart additional nuance to well-accepted theories? Situate your findings within the broader context of scientific literature, then explain the pathways or mechanisms that might give rise to, or explain, the results.

Journals vary in their approach to strengths and limitations sections: some are embedded paragraphs within the discussion section, while some mandate separate section headings. Keep in mind that every study has strengths and limitations. Candidly reporting yours helps readers to correctly interpret your research findings.

The next element of the discussion is a summary of the potential impacts and applications of the research. Should these results be used to optimally design an intervention? Does the work have implications for clinical protocols or public policy? These considerations will help the reader to further grasp the possible impacts of the presented work.

Finally, the discussion should conclude with specific suggestions for future work. Here, you have an opportunity to illuminate specific gaps in the literature that compel further study. Avoid the phrase “future research is necessary” because the recommendation is too general to be helpful to readers. Instead, provide substantive and specific recommendations for future studies. Table 4 provides common discussion section pitfalls and recommendations for addressing them.

Follow the Journal’s Author Guidelines

After you select a target journal, identify the journal’s author guidelines to guide the formatting of your manuscript and references. Author guidelines will often (but not always) include instructions for titles, cover letters, and other components of a manuscript submission. Read the guidelines carefully. If you do not follow the guidelines, your article will be sent back to you.

Finally, do not submit your paper to more than one journal at a time. Even if this is not explicitly stated in the author guidelines of your target journal, it is considered inappropriate and unprofessional.

Your title should invite readers to continue reading beyond the first page [ 4 , 5 ]. It should be informative and interesting. Consider describing the independent and dependent variables, the population and setting, the study design, the timing, and even the main result in your title. Because the focus of the paper can change as you write and revise, we recommend you wait until you have finished writing your paper before composing the title.

Be sure that the title is useful for potential readers searching for your topic. The keywords you select should complement those in your title to maximize the likelihood that a researcher will find your paper through a database search. Avoid using abbreviations in your title unless they are very well known, such as SNP, because it is more likely that someone will use a complete word rather than an abbreviation as a search term to help readers find your paper.

After you have written a complete draft, use the checklist (Fig. 3 ) below to guide your revisions and editing. Additional resources are available on writing the abstract and citing references [ 5 ]. When you feel that your work is ready, ask a trusted colleague or two to read the work and provide informal feedback. The box below provides a checklist that summarizes the key points offered in this article.

Checklist for manuscript quality

Data Availability

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Acknowledgments

Ella August is grateful to the Sustainable Sciences Institute for mentoring her in training researchers on writing and publishing their research.

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Busse, C., August, E. How to Write and Publish a Research Paper for a Peer-Reviewed Journal. J Canc Educ 36 , 909–913 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-020-01751-z

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If you're a student, you know how important it is to cite your sources when making an argument. And to do so, you turn to no other than scholarly journals, which are basically physical or digital books that collect written works from experts in different fields.

Thanks to technology, there are a wealth of well-reputed scholarly journals on the internet for our perusal. However, due to intellectual property laws, many of them charge expensive fees.

Because of this, many nonprofit organizations have begun launching free, open access journal websites for the benefit of students and the general public.

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Open access journals, as the name suggests, are websites where users are able to access scholarly articles and research papers for free. They are an immensely helpful source for individuals and groups who need to search for reliable academic information but are unable to pay for it.

Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best open access journals for you to expand your knowledge on different disciplines.

1. Elsevier

With over 140 years of serving the scientific community, open access journals on Elsevier are known to be highly credible and widely cited.

Journals on Elsevier cover just about any area of science and medicine you can think of, including cardiology, anesthesiology, infectious diseases, and even soil mechanics.

The open access journals also have English translations of scientific publications from around the world, including Spain, Brazil, China, and Saudi Arabia.

To get started on Elsevier, simply navigate to its open access website, and search for journals that are marked as Gold open access . Keep in mind that journals with  Green open access  labels are subscription journals that you need to pay for.

2. SAGE Open

SAGE is another well-established journal publisher in academia. Its open access website promises to deliver studies that adhere to the most rigorous peer-review standards for researchers, students, and the general public.

Because of the pandemic, SAGE has also made all COVID-19-related studies free to read and download. In the social sciences, the Black Lives Matter movement has also made publications about structural racism and police violence on SAGE available for free.

Similar to Elsevier, SAGE’s open access journals on the site are marked as Gold .

3. SpringerOpen

Launched in 2010, SpringerOpen has since gained a reputation as one of the most reputable open access journals in academia. The organization invites professionals from all fields of science, technology, the humanities, and the social sciences to submit research papers to raise awareness on different issues in society.

In addition to open access journals, SpringerOpen also runs a blog where you can read about the latest interviews, insights, and analyses with researchers and editors from Springer.

If you are still not sure about what kinds of sources you are looking for, don't fret. SpringerOpen has a search engine called the Journal Suggester that will recommend suitable scholarly articles. This personalized approach makes Springer the more user-friendly selection on the list.

4. BioMed Central

BioMed Central’s (BMC) online journals have been open access since 1999. The publication is owned by Springer Nature, which also runs SpringerOpen.

Some of BMC’s most well-known publications include BMC Biology and BMC Medicine. So if you’re looking for information related to either of those fields, don’t forget to check out BMC.

BMC is also a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics, a UK charity organization that promotes integrity in scholarly research. With its history and affiliations, data obtained from BMC is reputable, so you don’t have to worry about spreading false information.

5. Royal Society Open Science

As its name clearly states, the Royal Society Open Science is an open access journal published by the Royal Society in the UK, the world’s oldest and perhaps most renowned independent scientific academy.

With that reputation alone, you can be sure that the quality of its research papers is top-notch. Its editorial team is also comprised of some of the best scientists in the field. The Royal Society Open Source publishes peer-reviewed content from a wide range of disciplines, including life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics, engineering, and computer sciences.

Research papers put out by the Royal Society Open Science are also regularly covered by mainstream news outlets, including BBC and CNN.

If you are a humanities student, especially an English major, consider JSTOR your savior. JSTOR is one of the best humanities-focused publications in academia, and by popular demand, it has now made many of its scholarly journals open access.

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Besides English, open access titles on JSTOR are available in Spanish, thanks to its partnership with El Colegio de Mexico and the Latin American Council of Social Sciences.

If you are a liberal arts student, get excited, because JSTOR also has a sister site called Artstor . Artstor has a collection of over 1.3 million images, videos, documents, and audio files from museums for you to download for free.

And as if that is not enough, JSTOR also has a section dedicated to  Early Journal Content . This makes articles published before 1923 in the US (and before 1870 everywhere else in the world) available for free.

7. MDPI Humanities

Here’s another Humanities-focused journal for students of the liberal arts.

MDPI is a publisher of open access journals based in Basel, Switzerland. It has an extensive worldwide network of over 67,000 editors working on 297 diverse, peer-reviewed journals.

Humanities is an online publication and is released quarterly. From film studies to linguistics and literature, you can find almost any research paper on different areas in the humanities and social sciences.

Aside from its quarterly journals, the website also has regular announcements about humanities-related conferences happening all around the world. If you’d like to receive new editions of the journal every quarter, you can also sign up for email alerts on the website.

8. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

If you're still unable to find what you're looking for from the above websites, why not try the DOAJ?

Think of the DOAJ as an alternative to Google Scholar. It's essentially a search engine that allows you to look up over 15,000 open access journals on the internet. Unlike other specialized publications on this list, journals on DOAJ cover all areas, in all disciplines. Journals in different languages from around the world can also be found on the site.

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The DOAJ is a 100 percent not-for-profit website, and its journal review process is supported by hundreds of passionate editorial staff, all of whom are volunteers.

Taking Advantage of Open Access Journals

Open access journals are probably the best sources of legitimate, reliable, and evidence-backed information on the internet.

The next time you’re completing an important assignment, don’t forget to browse these websites to locate the best scholarly journals to lend extra credibility to your argument.

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