On May 28 and June 2, 2026, Prof. Gennady Agre lead the workshop “Open Access Publications” in the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The event was organized by the National Center for High-Performance and Distributed Computing (NCHDC). Prof. Agre presented an analysis and practical recommendations for open-access publishing, as well as an overview of Bulgarian scientific journals across various research fields.
In the first part of the presentation, the main open-access publishing models were discussed. The characteristics, advantages, and limitations of Gold Open Access, Green Open Access, Diamond/Platinum Open Access, and Hybrid Journals were presented, together with the factors researchers should consider when selecting an appropriate publishing model.
Then the focus shifted to choosing a suitable journal. The criteria for assessing the quality of scientific journals including indexes such as Scopus, Web of Science, and DOAJ, the scientific metrics used, and the transparency of editorial policies, were discussed. Special attention was given to identifying predatory journals and the importance of verifying their credibility.
Recommendations were provided for assessing the compatibility between a journal’s scope and the content of the submitted manuscripts, along with detailed guidelines on how to prepare scientific papers. The importance of clearly presenting the scientific contributions, maintaining a well-structured manuscript, and complying with publishers’ requirements was emphasized.
Separate sections were devoted to academic writing style and language, proper citation practices and bibliography, as well as the principles of Open Science. Best practices were presented for publishing research data in repositories, ensuring the reproducibility of research results, and using appropriate licenses from the Creative Commons family. The presentation also reviewed publishers’ policies regarding the use of generative artificial intelligence tools in the preparation of scientific publications.
In the second part of the presentation, Prof. Agre presented structured lists of Bulgarian open-access journals, grouped into four categories: Medicine and Health Sciences, Computer Science, Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence, Engineering and Technical Sciences, and Interdisciplinary and University Publications. For each journal, information was provided on its thematic scope, publication language, indexing status, and specific characteristics. The workshop concluded with the presentation of useful resources for evaluating and verifying scientific journals.
