Establishing Policies

Open Access

This section provides an overview of publishing best practices, with a focus on publishing ethics, open access, peer review, copyright and licensing, and accessibility. Particularly if you are new to journal publishing, please take the time to familiarize yourself with this information, and email your library publishing contact if you have questions.

Publishing Ethics

To engage in ethical publishing is to commit to an ongoing practice of transparency and fairness from the founding of a journal through its management, publication, distribution and preservation. The way in which ethics informs the publication process varies and includes, but is not limited to, the composition of editorial boards; the creation of policies that are transparent, clear, and inclusive; the identification and acknowledgment of bias, and a commitment to the identification and elimination of racial inequities in all stages of the publication process; an adherence to principles of academic integrity; and clearly defined and fairly administered peer-review processes. In the CSU OJS ecosystem, ethical publishing includes a commitment to ensuring that publications are open-access.

The resources below will help you to develop a publication that adheres to community ethical standards. Please note that not all ethical publishing considerations are included in these resources.

In addition to selecting your journal’s access model under Distribution Settings, you should also clearly state your journal’s open access policy, generally in the About the Journal section of the Journal Settings.