title: Perilous terra incognita--open-access journals.
abstract: The author focuses on a new rapidly spreading practice of publication in open-access journals. The pros and cons of open-access journals are discussed. Publishing in these journals may be cost prohibitive for educators and junior faculty members. Some authors may be lured by the ease of publishing in open-access journals (and their, at times, inflated self-description, e.g., "international", "scientific"), and their possibly valuable contributions will escape the attention of Academic Psychiatry readership in the vast sea of open-access journals. The readership may be flooded with a large number of low-quality articles (maybe not even properly peer-reviewed) from open-access journals. It may take some time to sort out what is and what is not relevant and useful. Open-access publishing represents a problematic and controversial practice and may be associated with a conflict of interest for the editors and publishers of these journals.
authors: Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA, rbalon@wayne.edu.
authors: Richard
authors: R
authors: Balon
mesh_terms: D016265:Conflict of Interest; D006801:Humans; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics / Q000592:standards*; D011643:Publishing / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics / Q000592:standards*