IEEE Offers Open-Access Option for All Peer-Reviewed Journals

Driven by member and author feedback, technical professional association IEEE has announced that all of its peer-reviewed journals — more than 100 — now offer open-access publishing options.

The growth of open-access scholarly research publishing enables technologists and the general public to read articles online for free, as opposed to the traditional model of paying for a subscription. Removing access barriers can advance research and scientific applications by exposing new concepts to a broader audience. Studies have shown that this approach may increase article citations.

As of June 2012, more than 7600 open-access journals were being published in 117 countries, according to a report from the UK-based Working Group on Expanding Access to Published Research Findings.

Under its “hybrid” journal model, IEEE will allow authors to choose between publishing their findings the traditional way, or paying an article-processing charge to publish open access.

“More authors, organizations and institutions want open-access options, but many authors still find it critically important to publish in peer-reviewed journals that offer prestige through proven track records,” said Robert E. Hebner, the vice president for Technical Activities for IEEE, and director of the Center for Electromechanics at the University of Texas at Austin. “Offering open access through [IEEE] journals gives authors very flexible, visible and credible options for publishing their research and reaching established technical communities.”

IEEE also offers four fully open-access topical journals — IEEE Journal of the Electron Devices Society, IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing, IEEE Photonics Journal, and IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine — and publishes a newly launched, fully open-access megajournal titled IEEE Access, which publishes articles that are at the boundaries of traditional engineering fields, or that cross multiple disciplines of engineering.

All of IEEE's open-access articles are available through its Xplore Digital Library database.

For more information, visit: open.ieee.org