Open Access Journal of Dairy Science

The Journal of Dairy Science (JDS) is the leading journal for anyone conducting research focusing on dairy. Whether that's dairy foods, dairy goats, dairy cows or any other lactating animal, the top researchers strive to publish in this journal, which boasts an impact factor of 3.082. The Journal is hosted by the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) which was founded in 1906 and began publishing the journal in 1917. Based in Champaign, Illinois (University of Illinois), the journal is not only the leading dairy journal in the United States, but also highly regarded across the world for it's reputable research.

Aims and Scope: "The Journal of Dairy Science publishes original research, invited review articles, and other scholarly work that relates to the production and processing of milk or milk products intended for human consumption. The journal is broadly divided into dairy foods and dairy production sections. The Resources and Environment section may include papers from either Dairy Foods or Dairy Production. Dairy Foods Sections • Bioactivity and Human Health • Chemistry and Materials Science • Microbiology and Safety • Processing and Engineering • Resources and Environment • Sensory Analysis Dairy Production Sections • Animal Nutrition • Genetics and Genomics • Health, Behavior, and Well-being • Farm Systems Analysis and Economics • Physiology • Resources and Environment In addition to the above sections, interpretive applied summaries and recommendations may be submitted to the Dairy Industry Today section. Syntheses and applications from technical reports that contribute to solutions to problems in the dairy industry are especially solicited. Authors of reports for extension education of the nonscientist are encouraged to share their contributions with colleagues and to achieve wider circulation of their conclusions and recommendations through this section. In addition, papers that report on advances in teaching and outreach techniques are suitable for this section."

As far as open access, the journal spells out what their open access process entails.

Open Access (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) To publish an article under an Open Access (OA) CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), authors should contact the editorial office when their paper is accepted for publication. A separate licensing form and fee agreement will be sent to the corresponding author of the paper for completion. For authors who choose to pay the OA fee instead of page charges, their paper will become freely available upon publication in an online issue. The OA fee is $1750 if at least one author is a professional member of ADSA or $3500 if no authors are ADSA members.

The alternative to this is the "Standard Page Charges"

Standard Page Charges The current charge for publication is $65 per printed page in the journal for articles if at least one author is a professional member of ADSA. If no authors are ADSA members, the publication charge is $140 per journal page. The cost to publish a color figure is $650 (per figure). There is charge for all offprints and reprints. An offprint order form will be sent to the corresponding author with the author proof.

With most journals averaging ~22.5 page long papers, you're looking at paying either $1,750 for open access or $1,462.5. So, it seems it would really depend on the length of your paper whether you would be willing to publish open access. Anything less than ~27 pages and you'll save money by publishing with the standard page charges instead of the open access. However, those color figures will cost you a hefty $650 each, which could make open access worth it. Most researchers I know that have the funding opt for the open access. However, the ones that don't have the funding, opt for another journal instead. While offering open access is fantastic, at this point it still seems like the JDS is still quite pricey and not affordable, which pushes up and coming research groups to publish in other journals. While this may give the journal it's touted "exclusivity", it is discouraging and I believe overall decreases the quality of the publications. However, the journal has to make enough money to pay the staff and put out the publications, so my lack of overall knowledge on the organization's structure leaves me feeling that my opinion is uninformed. I would love to learn more about the publishing process for this journal, especially since it is the top in my field.