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Guide for RDI staff: Scholarly publishing process

Scholarly publishing process

Research outputs are published in for example scholarly journals, conferences, reports and books. The scholarly publishing process consists of various stages and can take several months.

In scholarly publishing, research results are made available to the research community and everyone interested. A scholarly publication is a research output that disseminates new scholarly information for the research community, education, and the society at large to evaluate and reuse. Scholarly publishing is an important part of the impact of research and with it researchers gain merit and visibility.

Open access publishing is part of scholarly publishing, because it is a key goal in the operation of Turku University of Applied Sciences.

How to publish an open access scholarly article

1. Choosing a suitable journal

Find a high quality and reliable, preferably open access, journal that is suitable for your article and is likely to accept it for publication.

Make sure that your topic is interesting to the readership from the journal description on their website.

  • You can often find the information in, for example, Aims and Scope.

Ask for help in evaluating a reliable journal from the library specialists, we are happy to help you!

2. Find out if there are any costs to publish

The publisher may charge fees for scholarly publishing. The most common is the open access charge, but fees can even be charged for an article published in a printed journal.

  • The fees are usually called APCs (article processing charges, book processing charges, etc.).
  • The payer can be the author, their employer, or the funder of the research.
  • The fees vary from a few hundred to thousands of euros.

There are several ways to make a publication open access:

Check that the following things are clearly stated on the journal website:

  • Copyright remains with you and you do not give it to the journal once you have signed a publishing agreement
  • The journal has a CC BY license or other reuse license. More information about Creative Commons licenses

Make sure that the article can be self-archived after publication if you are publishing it in a subscription journal. The information can be found on the journal's website, for example under Author information or Open access publishing:

If necessary, ask the library for help, we are happy to help!

3. Submitting your article

Remember to include your ORCID researcher ID in your contact information when you are submitting your article to a journal. Fill in Turku University of Applied Sciences as your affiliation.

  • Note that you can usually add more than one affiliation, for example if you are affiliated to another organisation in a project.

More information:

4. Typical publishing process

If your manuscript is accepted for publication, it will start a publishing process that can take time anywhere from a few months to up to a year.

The diagram below shows the different versions of a publication created in a typical publishing process. Pay attention to which version you should keep for possible self-archiving (Green OA).

Edited from graph by Deakin University Library (CC BY).

Always keep the article versions the publisher send to you, especially if you publish in a subscription-based journal. Self-archiving in the organisation's own or discipline-specific repository is often possible with the publisher's permission.

  • Final draft is the final version of the article in terms of content, but it usually doesn't include the layout of the journal, page numbers, diagrams, etc.
    • Self-archiving of this version is usually allowed, sometimes after a release delay (embargo), which can be anything up to two years.
  • Publisher's PDF is the official published version of the article with the final layouts and page numbers.
    • This version can only rarely be self-archived.

Self-archiving is part of the publication data collection process of Turku University of Applied Sciences. Learn more about self-archiving.

5. When the article is published

Send the information on your publication to the library at julkaisutiedonkeruu@turkuamk.fi to be added to the annual publication data collection of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.

  • Together with the publication information, send the last manuscript version (final draft) of the article for self-archiving (Green OA), especially if you have published the article in a traditional subscription journal.
  • The library will determine whether the article can be self-archived in the Theseus repository.

Also report if you or Turku UAS paid an APC to publish the article open access with the details of your publication.

Other things to consider

  • Check the requirements of the journal publisher and your potential funder for open access publishing and open research data.
    • In addition to the OA article, many funders require that at least the metadata of the research data is open.
  • Cite your research data in your article to maintain the connection between the data and the article.
    • Citing the data increases the reliability and transparency of your research.
  • Increase your visibility and gain merit with your article by sharing it on social media, within the university of applied sciences and to your colleagues in other higher education institutions.
    • NOTE: Most of the time, you do not have permission to upload the article to social media, use the persistent link to the article instead. [LINKKI KUN SIVU VALMIS TÄSSÄ OPPAASSA]

Publishing agreement and the right to self-archive

  • If you are writing an article with others, ask for their permission for open access publishing, preferably already at the beginning of the research process.
  • When signing a publishing agreement, make sure that you keep the right to use the text elsewhere and self-archive your article in the Turku UAS repository.
    • NOTE: Signing a publishing agreement in the publisher's online system can basically be just a click of a button with which you accept the publishing agreement and all the terms and conditions included in it.
    • Articles written in an RDI project: Remember to check the funding agreement for requirements on open access publishing before signing a publishing agreement.
  • The publishing agreement should allow immediate open access (often with an APC) or self-archiving, either immediately or after an embargo period.
  • If you have signed a publishing agreement that transfers all rights to the publisher, the publisher or journal may not allow self-archiving.
    • NOTE: Always check the journal information or publishing agreement to see if you are permitted to save your article in social media platforms, for example in ResearchGate, Academia.edu, or LinkedIn. More information about copyright and permitted use of resources.
    • You can always share a link to your article, see for example ResearchGate.
  • You should always check the right to self-archive primarily from the journal website.

Ask for help to clarify any questions by email from julkaisutiedonkeruu@turkuamk.fi, we are happy to help!

About the guide

This guide has instructions and information on the Turku UAS library services for research.

NOTE: You may end up in other guides through the links in this guide, use the backspace button to return.

Other guides to explore

Tools for open access publishing

  • Open policy finder - Search service for self-archiving policies for major publishers and journals and funders' open access policies (formerly SHERPA/RoMEO)
  • JUFO service - Finnish search service for information on publishers' and journals' publishing policies
  • Choose a CC license - Infographic to help you choose a suitable CC license for you work
  • Think. Check. Submit. - Instructions on how to assess the reliability of publishers and journals
  • Retraction Watch - Information on retracted articles in journals and Hijacked Journal Checker tool that has a list of hijacked journals

How to find publishers and OA repositories

How to choose a publication channel

Think. Check. Submit.

Use the checklists on Think. Check. Submit. to find reliable publishers or journals:

Think: Are you submitting your research to a trusted publisher or journal?

Check: Use our checklist to assess the publisher or journal.

Submit: Only if you can answer 'yes' to the questions on our checklist.

Images: Think. Check. Submit. CC BY.

Publishing terminology

APC (Article Processing Charge)

The OA publication fee or the article processing fee of a publication that's charged to the author when they publish an article in a Gold OA or hybrid journal. The APC only covers open access publishing, not other processing of the article, such as language revision, etc.

Embargo

A publication delay defined by the publisher for self-archiving. During the delay, the publication may not be published open access online. The embargo period starts from the date of publication of either the electronic version or the printed version and can be 6-36 months or longer.

Green OA (self-archiving, parallel publishing)

Depositing a publication version in an open access repository of a higher education institution, research institute, or in a subject-specific or general repository. At Turku University of Applied Sciences, the library will self-archive your publications for you. More information: Guide to Open Access: Self-archiving (Green OA).

Institutional repository, open access repository

An open access repository of a higher education institution or research institute, e.g. Theseus.

Post-print / Author's accepted manuscript / AAM / Final draft / Author accepted version

Hold on to this version!
The final corrected version (that has undergone peer review) the author sends to the publisher, where the publisher's layout has not been added.

  • The word "post" in the term refers to the content, not the printing.
  • Version is finished "in terms of content", i.e. its content is the same as in the final article to be published.
  • A version with a Proof watermark doesn't meet the criteria for a final draft version (too finished).

Pre-print

A manuscript version that has not been peer reviewed. The version may differ a lot from the final publication in terms of content and appearance. Not self-archived. The only exceptions are the preprint versions deposited in the ArXiv repository, which are eligible for publication data collection by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.

Publisher's PDF / Final published version / Version of Record

A publication in the form it has been published online and/or in a printed journal by the publisher.

Sources used on the page

Usage rights of the guide

   This resource has been licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. It does not apply to photos or videos unless otherwise stated.