The knowledge's of free electronically journals within Faculty members of Zanjan University of Medical Science

There are many accredited free open access journals in medical subjects. We do not know how much researchers in this country are aware of them. The aim of this study is to learn about the knowledge of faculty members of Zanjan University of Medical Science about such journals. This is a descriptive cross- sectional study. The questionnaires were made after a pilot study to check the validity of the questions. Of 189 faculty members 95 filled out the questionnaires. Data were analyzed using the Chi-Square testes. The frequencies and the means were also calculated. 34. 7% of the participants were familiar with free open access journals، but most of them were unaware of the following points: validity of articles، suitability of reviewers، copyright declaration، and financial resources. However، most faculty members believed that free electronic information sources provide the opportunity for high citation. There are high impact factor journals which are widely available and publish articles earlier than others. Most of the participants believed that two important benefits of e-journals are easy accessibility and being free of charge. Most participants of our study were not fully familiar with free open access journals. It is recommended that faculty members be made more aware of such journals.