Open access publishing: What is world’s best practice?

Summary

Open access publishing delivers on the dream of centuries - the free and unfettered access to the written word. However there are shades of openness and the question raised is 'what is world's best practice for open access publishing?' Four criteria are proposed to generate a star rating for an open access journal - for ‘openness’ - with a star available for meeting each criterion, to a maximum of four. The open access criteria for scoring star ratings are: (1) There is no barrier to access for the reader; (2) It is free to the author/s; (3) Copyright is retained by the author/s; and (4) The paper can be freely distributed under licence. The Journal of Organic Systems 'ticks all the boxes' to rate as a four-star open access journal.