Open Access, "the free, immediate, online availability of research articles," is one option for authors who want to share their research and hold onto their copyrights. There are two paths to Open Access (OA), the gold route (OA publishing) and the green route (Self-Archiving).
You can learn more about Open Access on our Open Access Library Guide:
One way you can evaluate an Open Access journal is by searching for it in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). DOAJ indexes most Open Access journals that are known to be of high quality. If the journal you're considering isn't on their list, you might want to inspect it more closely.
Another option for evaluating journals is to follow the Think, Check, Submit checklist. The Think, Check, Submit video below lists the following items (and more!) you should look out for when evaluating a journal: