Publishing House “Virtus Interpress”

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

Directory of Open Access Journals

(DOAJ) is a community-curated online

directory that indexes and provides

access to high quality, open access,

peer-reviewed journals.

All DOAJ services are free of charge

including being indexed in DOAJ. All data

is freely available.

DOAJ operates an education and

outreach program across the globe.

All funding isvia donations:

40% of whichcomes from

sponsors

60% frommembers and

publishermembers

Mission and aim

DOAJ's mission is to increase the visibility, accessibility,reputation, usage and impact of quality, peer-reviewed,open access scholarly research journals globally,regardless of discipline, geography or language.

The Directory aims to be comprehensive and cover allopen access academic journals that use an appropriatequality control system and is not limited to particularlanguages or subject areas.

The idea for the DOAJ came out of discussions at the first Nordic Conference on ScholarlyCommunication in 2002. The DOAJ was launched in 2003 at Lund University, Sweden, with300 open access journals and today contains 10000 open access journals.

Lund University continued to do so until January 2013, when Infrastructure Services for OpenAccess took over.

The Infrastructure Services for Open Access (IS4OA) was founded in 2012 in the UK as a not-for-profit charitable company by open access advocates Caroline Sutton and Alma Swan. It runsboth the DOAJ and the Open Citations Corpus.

ConstituonDOAJ is a not-for-profit organisation managed by Infrastructure Services for Open AccessC.I.C. (Community Interest Company).

DOAJ relies entirely on the voluntary donations of its members and on sponsorship moniesreceived.

In March 2016, DOAJ received a grant from the IDRC for a specific timed project tackling theimprovement of open access journals in the Global South. Neither DOAJ or IS4OA receives grantsor funding from any other source.

DOAJ has an Advisory Board, the members of which carry out their duties voluntarily.

DOAJ uses the services of approximately 100 voluntary editorial staff who review applications.Volunteers are bound by a Code of Conduct and an Agreement that they must sign and return toDOAJ before they can carry out their duties.

DOAJ is a membership organisation and membership is

available in 3 main categories: Publisher, Ordinary

Member and Sponsor.

A DOAJ Membership is a clear statement of intent and

proves a commitment to quality, peer-reviewed open

access.

DOAJ is co-author to the Principles of Transparency and

Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (Principles) and

DOAJ members are expected to follow these principles

as a condition of membership.

DOAJ publishes Information for Publishers on site to

help Publishers adhere to the Principles and to assist

them in completing an application.

Principles of transparency and best practice in

scholarly publishingThe Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals

(DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) and the World

Association of Medical Editors (WAME) are scholarly organizations that have seen an

increase in the number, and broad range in the quality of, membership applications. They

have collaborated to identify principles of transparency and best practice for scholarly

publications and to clarify that these principles form the basis of the criteria by which

suitability for membership is assessed.

Principles of Transparency

Website Name of journalPeer review

processOwnership and management

Governing bodyEditorial

team/contact information

Copyright and Licensing

(creative Commons license)

Author fees(it shall be clearly

stated in a place that is easy to find)

Process for identification of and

dealing with allegations of

research misconduct

Publication EthicsPublishing schedule

Access Archiving Revenue sources

Advertising Direct marketing

Principles of transparency and best practice in

scholarly publishing

DOAJ contents (above figures taken in June 2018 are

continually increasing):

11,722 Journals

8,489 searchable at Article level

128 Countries

3,155,865 Articles

Benefits from the work with DOAJ

DOAJ enables researchers, students and the public to search for good open access journals, and by that prevents the use of unethical or

questionable journals.

DOAJ allow researchers, and those who advise them, to find proper

publishing channels, and even such that complies with their funder

policies and mandates.

Benefits from the work with DOAJ

Research managers:

• 1) are using DOAJ andDOAJ data to determinewhether researchers arepublishing in good openaccess journals;

• 2) use DOAJ to monitorcompliance with openaccess policies andmandates.

Authors/researchers:

• 1) DOAJ is a referencepoint for researcherslooking for good publishingchannels within their field ofresearch;

• 2) by using DOAJ foridentifying good openaccess journals they can bereassured that they do notsubmit their papers toquestionable journals.

Research funders:

• 1) look to DOAJ to checkfor good open accessjournals, to check whetherthey comply with theirpolicies and mandates;

• 2) several funders haveopen access publicationfunds and often listing inDOAJ is an eligibilitycriterion for getting support;

• 3) operate list of ApprovedPublication Channels andwant good OA-journalsincluded

Benefits from the work with DOAJ

Publishers:

• 1) publishers are an importantstakeholder group in relation to theDOAJ. Listing in the DOAJ, thisprovides a stamp of quality;

• 2) the DOAJ criteria offer a checklistdescribing best practice that is usefulfor new enterprises, scholar publishersand publishers moving from asubscription-based portfolio toincluding open access titles;

• 3) the value of the DOAJ to publishersis demonstrated in the number ofsponsorships the service receives.

Libraries:

• 1) libraries are providing advice toresearchers as to where to publish,and DOAJ is an important tool inthat regard;

• 2) libraries are often the managersof open access publication funds atuniversities, more often than notlisting in DOAJ is mandatory forjournals to be eligible for supportfrom such open access publicationfunds.

Benefits for authors to publish in journals indexed

in DOAJ: a paper citation perspective

All three full-open access journals published by Virtus Interpress (Journal of

Governance and Regulation; Risk Governance and Control: financial markets

and institutions; Corporate Board: role, duties and composition) reported an

increase in citations of papers after inclusion of these journals in DOAJ (two

first mentioned journals were included in DOAJ at the end of December 2017

and by the end of June 2018 reported an increase in paper citations for 26-34

per cent). Journal Corporate Board was included in DOAJ in May 2018 and by

the end of June 2018 the paper citation increased for 18 per cent).

So, publishing the papers in the journals included in DOAJ

increases the paper citation even in a short-run perspective.

What does the green tick symbol next

to some journals mean?

The green tick ("The Tick") is

displayed against all journals

that were accepted into DOAJ

after March 2014 when DOAJ

launched its new criteria for

journals to be accepted into

DOAJ.

Quality control and author guidelines

DOAJ shows that open access journals have the

same, rigorous quality control systems in place as

traditional printed or subscription-based journals.

All articles go through a quality control system

(editorial or peer review) before publication and

the exact type of review must be stated clearly on

the web site. This is a basic requirement for entry

into DOAJ.

Having detailed and comprehensive guidelines

for authors (Instructions for Authors). A link to

these guidelines must be clearly presented on the

journal's homepage. This is a basic requirement

for entry into DOAJ.

Impact factors

DOAJ does not believe in the value of impact factors, does

not condone their use on journal web sites, does not

recognize partial impact factors, and advocates any official,

alternative measure of use, such as article level metrics.

DOAJ believe in the value of only one official, universally

recognised impact factor that is generated by Thomson

Reuters. This runs against the ethics and principles of open

access and DOAJ is impact-factor agnostic.

DOAJ does not collect metadata on impact factors.

Displaying impact factors on a home page is strongly

discouraged and DOAJ perceives this as an attempt to lure

authors in a dishonest way.

Reasons of rejection for inclusions of journals in DOAJ:

an advise for the authors to check up there is no response from the applicant

the contact details provided do not include a name

nothing has been published in the last calendar year

incomplete or incorrect ISSN information

incomplete application

every URL in the application form is identical

duplicate application

the journal is already in DOAJ

the journal does not adhere to the Principles of Transparency and Best

Practice in Scholarly Publishing*

the journal does not fulfil the basic requirements listed on this page

the journal is not open access

the journal does not publish original research*

* This is an evidence of low scholarly value of the journal and bed practices

Feedback about DOAJ

“One of the most recommended features is the Directory of

Open Access Journals (DOAJ), which recognizes and aggregates

publications from around the world of high-quality scientific, open

access and peer-reviewed.

I therefore take pride in the recent indexation of Gazeta Médica

in the DOAJ, an acknowledgment that repositions the scientific

publication of José de Mello Saúde among the international

reference publications. The indexing of the journal in international

databases, such as the DOAJ, reflects the quality of this

production.”

Salvador de Mello

Presidente do Conselho de Administração

da José de Mello Saúde

Feedback about DOAJ

“We are delighted to be a Patron sponsor of DOAJ. Organizations like DOAJ promote values like

excellence and integrity that mirror Enago’s vision since its inception, almost 12 years ago.

Sponsoring DOAJ is a great way for Enago to increase our engagement with the research community,

raise visibility of open access journals, and propagate ethical publication practices.”

Sharad Mittal,

CEO, Enago