"The future of scholarly publishing lies in Open Access. Scholars in the future should give careful consideration to the where they publish, since their goal should be to make the products of their research as widely available as possible, to people throughout the world. Open Humanities Press is a most welcome initiative that will help us move in this direction."

-- Jonathan Culler, Cornell University

Journal Policies

Open Humanities Press journals are leading open access publications in critical and cultural theory. All have been through a rigorous selection process by OHP's Editorial Oversight Group which considers a journal's editorial mission and standards, its contribution to and ability to shape contemporary critical debates, its fit with OHP's intellectual and international scope, as well as its promotion of a diversity of scholars and scholarly practices.

Suggestions of journal titles for upcoming bi-annual assessment rounds are welcome. Journals selected by the Editorial Oversight Group are invited to join the OHP collective and we are happy to assist promising new members in meeting our production, open access and open technical standards as needed.

Publication Standards

OHP journals are peer reviewed, have high-profile, international editorial boards, use accepted editorial conventions, publish regularly according to stated schedules, and are produced by a non-profit scholarly association or society.

Open Access Standards

OHP journals are immediately available Open Access upon publication and use a clear, recognized OA license such as Creative Commons.

Production and design standards

OHP journals meet professional standards of production and design

Technical Considerations

OHP journals already or eventually will

  • provide full text electronically through website
  • be compatible with OHP´s open source technical infrastructure
  • be OAI-PMH compliant
  • possess a stable home base / Evergreen URL / be archived permanently
  • be accessible to people with disabilities
  • follow industry standards for online journal publication citations, i.e. easily identifiable journal title, year of publication, volume and/or issue number (if applicable), article title, unique page number or article number, complete table-of-contents for each issue including page/article number for each article (unless journal is being published as single articles)

Editorial best practices

OHP recommends its journals

  • have a clearly stated length of expected review period
  • generally meet this expected review period, with clear policies for obtaining alternative reviewers when necessary
  • have or develop a reputation for timely acceptance or rejection decisions
  • practice reasonable time-to-publication upon acceptance