About Herbert Publications

Herbert Publications is an online publishing organization committed to provide immediate open access to peer-reviewed biological, medical research, technology and management journals.

Herbert Publications publishes online, open access journals covering all fields in biology and medicine - from life sciences and ecology to clinical medicine.

All of the original research articles in journals published by Herbert Publications are immediately and permanently available online without charge or any other barriers to access.

Herbert Publications views open access to research as essential to rapid and efficient communication of research findings.

Herbert Publications is committed to maintaining high standards through full and stringent peer review. Authors who publish original research articles in journals published by Herbert Publications retain copyright over their work.

Herbert Publications supports PubMed Central and other digital repositories,and encourages self-archiving by authors.

Vision

Authors have long shown more interest in the prestige of the publication than in the ability of users to access that publication, but authors are coming to recognize that their actions - such as the exclusive transfer of copyright - are damaging access. Publication is a long road from author to reader, and if access to journal literature is to improve, authors have to ensure that barriers are not erected at their end of the road which hinders access for users at the other end of the road. The open-access vision in the BOAI is achievable! It may be achieved through new purchasing models or through improvements in library co-operation. Because of the scale of user-need world-wide, it will only be achieved through electronic document supply if there is a radical shift in the way publishers and librarians think about document delivery.

Given that open access is a new concept in scholarly communication, it is arguable that only those initiatives which are developing new models will succeed in making a major breakthrough in access. Barrier-free access can only be achieved through a break with the current economic models or with the current routes to content. Such initiatives are not the responsibility of only one community. Librarians, publishers and authors are all involved in movements like SPARC or the BOAI. If there is to be much better access to journal literature in the future, realizing the BOAI vision, it will come through collaboration between all the participants in such movements. Librarians, publishers and authors need not lose out as open access is achieved, but the big winners will be all those users across the world who are hungry for academic information."

HOAJ Peer Review System

At Herbert Publications, all research articles receive rapid and thorough peer review. The detail of each journal is the responsibility of the journal editor(s) concerned. Many journals operate traditional anonymous peer review.

All research articles – Freely accessed

Re-used and re-distributed

Authors publishing with Herbert Publications retain the copyright to their work, licensing it under the Creative Commons Attribution License. This license allows articles to be freely downloaded from the Herbert Publication website, and also allows articles to be re-used and re-distributed without restriction, as long as the original work is correctly cited.