Osgoode Hall Law School is an important stakeholder for legal scholarly publishing in Canada. Through the Osgoode Digital Commons publishing platform, the Osgoode Law Library offers an Open Access (OA) publishing program that supports open, sustainable, and responsible models of scholarly communication that hinges on the principle of barrier free education.
To partner and be published with Osgoode Digital Commons journals must operate under a “Diamond Open Access” model, meaning they do not charge fees to authors. Additionally journals must adhere to the best practices in scholarly publishing.
Below is a publishing policy guide to help define what the best practices in scholarly publication look like. Certain policies are also required for ensuring your journal is indexed and discoverable. This document contains a list of example policy types, alongside descriptions and example language.
This is a required statement for applications to most indexing services. Consider what the journal hopes to accomplish and how that will happen. Consider including what type of submissions and formats are accepted, and outlining the criteria of who can submit to the journal.
This policy will outline the responsibilities of the author and the journal. This can include information on if there is a copyright transfer, or if the author retains copyright. A best practice for OA journals is to have authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights without restrictions.
The policy should allow authors to retain their copyrights to use their work outside of the Creative Commons licence. It grants the journal the necessary rights for publishing, distributing, and safeguarding the article(s) in various formats, including migration to new platforms and protection against copyright claims on third-party content. The publisher agreement used should be visible for authors to view on the journal website
See sample author agreements from the The University of Alberta and the University of Michigan sample agreement
The copyright notice serves to communicate the copyright ownership and assigned Creative Commons license of the article to readers. The Osgoode Digital Commons mandates the use of a CC license for its journals. The copyright notice should be displayed on the journal submission page, accompanied by a checkbox for authors to indicate their agreement. Additionally, it should be visible on the cover of the article index page and included in the downloadable PDF of the article.
This is a statement which clearly outlines to the reader the journal’s policy about the access requirements of the journal. This policy should explicitly note that your journal does not charge an article processing charge (APC) to make content open access.
Example of an OA statement from the Osgoode Hall Law Journal
It is crucial to demonstrate careful consideration of the roles and responsibilities of authors, publishers, and reviewers in this statement. Most high impact academic indcies will not consider journals with out a clear ethics publishing statement. Review the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) to identify examples cases and resolution strategies.
Example Publication of Ethics Statement 1: (from The Osgoode Hall Law Journal )
Example Publication Ethics Statement 2 (from the University of Toronto Law Journal)
Example of General Ethical publishing guidelines (from Weave: Journal Of Library User Experience)
While not a required criteria it is recommended to have a correction policy, this can be included within the Publication ethics. Ideally the policy outlines the actions taken upon notification of an error after publication which needs to be corrected. The policy statement should state what corrections remain invisible (not announced) and which should be visible (announced or displayed), as well as the length of time it takes to make the correction. For more information see Public Knowledge Project documentation.
For an example see the Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies, under “Post-Publication Discussions or Corrections”
Long-term preservation systems ensure that the work your journal produces can be safely archived and preserved by secure archiving systems. An example statement:
This journal is archived with the [Long-term preservation system]. This service offer a decentralized and distributed preservation, perpetual access, and preservation of the authentic original version of the content.
Other example statement: Tilburg Law Review
A statement clarifying to authors what their rights are for self-archiving, covering their rights to self-archive preprint, accepted, final publisher versions of the article, usually in places like their own website or institutional repository. Index database will sometimes verify this information using publication database services such as Sherpa Romeo
ODC suggested policy for author retaining rights:
Pre-print versions posted online should include a citation and link to the final published version in [Journal Title] as soon as the issue is available; post-print versions (including the final publisher's PDF) should include a citation and link to the journal's website.
Template taken from Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, under “Copyright Notice”
Develop a policy that clearly address how the journal handles allegations of research misconduct, including who to contact.
Example Osgoode Hall Law Journal:
Editors are responsible for reporting any suspected misconduct or infringements of publication ethics to senior editors. In cases of suspected misconduct or disputed authorship, editors are guided by COPE Best Practice Guidelines and flowcharts.
The journal has clearly stated the publishing schedule and kept to practice. This can be included into scope or submission section, as long as it is publicly accessible to view. Having a consistent and transparent publishing schedule helps build credibility and legitimacy of new and maintained journals.
Need help drafting a policy or have questions? Email the Digital Scholarship Librarian for help.
This information on this page was adapted from the University of Alberta's Journal Publishing Guide.