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How do you judge the quality of a journal?

How to evaluate the genuineness/authenticity, impact, significance & reputation of an open access journal? The prestigious journals have Impact factor & various indices, What about open access journals?

EDIT: Although a previously asked question has garnered many responses, this question is only toward open access publishing.

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  • this question is explicitly for open access.
    – ShadowWarrior
    Commented May 20, 2012 at 21:30
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    I'm with @JukkaSuomela. There shouldn't be a difference.
    – bobthejoe
    Commented May 21, 2012 at 2:38
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    @bobthejoe but there is a difference.
    – DQdlM
    Commented Jul 3, 2012 at 18:34
  • The economics are different for open vs. closed. This means the "human physics" are nearly entirely incompatible with a non-open-access journal. Look at communism/socialism vs. market economy. The level and pervasiveness of tyranny is nearly asymptotically maximized in the former. That is "different physics" for reviewers of the papers.
    – EngrStudent
    Commented Apr 3, 2019 at 21:30

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In the same way you evaluate quality of a non-open access journal: who are the people on the editorial board, what kind of papers do they publish, etc.

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    Yep. The quality of a journal is completely orthogonal to its business model.
    – JeffE
    Commented May 21, 2012 at 8:06
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    I think this question has more merit than it is being given credit for. Most of the journals that I currently have experience with are not open access but I can judge them based on extensive experience both as an author and a reader. However as I become more interested in supporting and furthering open access, I am faced with having to evaluate journals that I have essentially no experience with (and neither do my peers). This means that I can wait until I have acquired years of experience before I begin to publish in OA journals or look to use a different approach.
    – DQdlM
    Commented Jul 3, 2012 at 18:33
  • @DQdIM, I think that the correct question is how do you evaluate a new journal, not necessarily an OA journal. For instance, eLife is a brand new journal and there is no IF to measure or past experience, but from merely looking at their list of editors, you know it is going to be legit.
    – bobthejoe
    Commented Jul 3, 2012 at 20:36

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