Most readers are aware that under the current publishing market model, the only organisations profiting from publishing scientific research are large corporations or predatory independent publishers that charge high rates to authors for Article Processing Charges (APCs) and/or that charge libraries high subscription fees to provide digital (not printed) access to articles, in order to make them somehow available to the readers (see the cost of academic publishing).
I love the concept of openness, because it’s all about sharing good practices, ideas and making research accessible for everyone everywhere, democratising access to knowledge and information. So, in order to celebrate Open Access Week, I compiled a very short list of journals that are fully open access and that do not charge the authors for publishing with them. This for me is key, as while I was doing my PhD I was able to publish my research in some of these journals without having to pay for APCs and to access all their articles without my having to pay (or my library having to pay) for subscription.
The list of journals I give below can make life much better for early-career researchers and for those researchers that do not work in academia, that want to get their research in open education published in high quality journals, and that want to conduct research where libraries cannot afford to pay for subscriptions. The list should also be of great help to the increasing number of independent researchers outside higher education institutions.
What is important to me are the editorial values of these journals: they are supported by international universities and organisations, they do not aim at profiting in any way, they have excellent editorial boards, they are well indexed and finally, they have speedy publishing times, which is beneficial both for authors and readers.
- E-learning papers http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/elearning_papers
- European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning (EURODL) http://www.eurodl.org
- International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL) http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl
- Open Praxis http://openpraxis.org/index.php/OpenPraxis
- Research in Learning Technology (RLT) http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt
- Universities and Knowledge Society Journal (RUSC) http://journals.uoc.edu/index.php/rusc/
- Journal of Learning for Development* (JL4D) http://www.jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/index
- Journal of Online Learning Research (JOLR)** https://www.aace.org/pubs/jolr/
- Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT)** http://jolt.merlot.org/
** JL4D recommended by Professor Alan Tait @AlanTait
** JOLR & JOLT recommended by Robert Farrow @philosopher1978 from @OER_hub
Thoughts on Open Education 
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