Professor Justin Kenardy FAPS
At the beginning of this year the Australian Journal of Psychology, flagship journal of the Australian Psychological Society, embraced the principles of Open Science and became fully Open Access. The decision to go down this route was not taken lightly as it was a fundamentally different model of publication and distribution of scientific knowledge. It is not without risk but the APS decided that the risks were worth the value added to its members and to society as a whole. Open Access means that everyone who wishes to, can have direct access to the knowledge produced through the journal.
I have been a part of the process of moving the Australian Journal of Psychology to Open Access from the start when the decision was being made. As a consequence of that commitment, I decided to continue as the incoming editor in 2020. Preparing the Journal for conversion was complicated by the commencement of a new publisher, Taylor and Francis. This meant that the publisher and I needed to commence the year with the previous subscription model and end it with the completely different Open Access model.
By mid-2021, the Journal was no longer accepting submissions under the previous subscription model. The rush to publish under the old model meant we had a large number of papers to process and publish by the end of 2021 when the Journal became Open Access. Submissions after June 2020 were also being reviewed and processed. With the generously given assistance of the associate editors and the publisher, we achieved this goal. 2021 was a bumper year!
One of the key features of Open Access is that the authors cover the Article Processing Charge (APC). This was a point of concern for us. While this model exists in the other APS journals as an option, it is rarely if ever taken up by authors. There are mechanisms that the publisher offers to mitigate this. There are partial or full waivers available for authors from economically disadvantaged countries. Furthermore, there are a very limited number of waivers available at the editor’s discretion. Some institutions also offer APC support for their employees.
Such was the commitment of the APS to Open Science, it decided to provide a limited number of full waivers to APS members. This is a very significant action which ensured that APS members could publish in the Australian Journal of Psychology at no cost. APS members should be very proud to be part of an organisation committed to supporting Open Science by taking this step. This has allowed the Journal to continue to serve its members through its support of psychological science.
How has the Journal fared in the first year of Open Access? To date there has been an increase in submissions in the first part of 2022 compared to the same time in 2021. Furthermore, the papers now available as Open Access have meant that there has been a magnitude of change between 2020 and 2021 in access to published papers, increasing from 6841 to 85,946. This extraordinary result is a manifestation of Open Access.
This is the start of the road for the Journal as Open Access. There is still a long way to go and much to do, but the start is promising.
1 Editor-in-chief, Australian Journal of Psychology
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