Directory of Open Access Journals [DOAJ] – An introduction and more

By Leena Shah
Managing Editor & Ambassador, DOAJ

Focus Group on Ethics, Research Integrity and Open Scholarship
Organized by Taylor & Francis
New Delhi, 13th April 2018

1. Directory of Open Access Journals [DOAJ] – An introduction and more ____________________________ By Leena Shah Managing Editor & Ambassador, DOAJ Focus Group on Ethics , Research Integrity and Open Scholarship Organized by Taylor & Francis New Delhi, 13 th April 2018

2. Outline Who we are and what are we doing? How do we work? What makes the DOAJ index credible & trustworthy? Criteria ? How do we identify questionable publishers? Relevance in today’s context - Using DOAJ index of OA journals in UGC Approved list of journals

3. What are we doing?

4. DOAJ Mission Increase the visibility, accessibility, reputation, usage and impact of quality, peer-reviewed, open access scholarly research journals globally, regardless of discipline, geography or language.  DOAJ will work with editors, publishers and journal owners to help them understand the value of best practice publishing and standards and apply those to their own operations DOAJ is committed to being 100% independent and maintaining all of its services and metadata as free to use or reuse for everyone.

5. DOAJ – more than a list of journals! A global list of peer-reviewed Open Access journals – all subjects and languages – journals undergo evaluation based on a set of criteria – 11,170 Journals (April 2018 ) An aggregation of article level metadata – Publishers upload article metadata into DOAJ – 73% of the journals do so – Currently 3,010,037 articles All DOAJ services and data are free for all to use , download and re-use

6. Who we are?

7. DOAJ Core Team • Managing Director • Operations Manager • Project and Communications Manager • Editor-in-Chief • Senior Managing Editor • 6 Managing Editors • We are based in Sweden, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy , Spain, India, N Africa & Denmark – And…

8. Volunteers and Ambassadors • 50+ Voluntary Editors/Associate Editors working in editorial groups • 20 Ambassadors recruited to – Promote DOAJ – Handle applications of journals to be listed in DOAJ – Promote best publishing practice and – Help identifying and spotting questionable and unethical publishers • Ambassadors are based in – China, India, Russia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Algeria, South Africa and Mexico, Indonesia & S Korea – covering Asia, Middle East, Africa and Latin America

9. How do we work?

10. How do we work? Journals apply via the application form http ://doaj.org/application/new The application form consists of 54 questions and is available in 13 languages Applications are initially triaged We receive over 450 applications every month So far DOAJ has not actively solicited applications

11. Application Form We ask about : The editorial board The peer review process Archiving/preservation Plagiarism Openness – Licensing and copyright – Re-use rights Charges … and much, much more

12. Three-tier Evaluation Process Associate Editors : reviewing applications, communicate with publishers, recommend inclusion/rejection Editors : allocating applications to Associate Editors, recommend inclusion/rejection Managing Editors : allocate applications to Editors & decide on inclusion/rejection Managing Editor

13. https://doaj.org/publishers

14. What makes the DOAJ index credible & trustworthy? Criteria ?

15. Editorial Process – Quality & Transparency The journal must have an editor or an editorial board, all members must be easily identified Specification of the review process – Editorial/ Peer/ Blind /Double blind / Open Peer Review Statements about aims & scope clearly visible Instructions to authors shall be available and easily located Screening for plagiarism ? Time from submission to publication

16. Openness

17. Reuse/remix - Licensing

18. Copyright & Permissions

19. Charges

20. General criteria Full (“gold”) OA – not hybrid Full text must be available without embargo One unique URL per article Journal website may have information in more than one language. However, all the information should be the same in all languages Journal must have at least 5 articles published in the last calendar year Aim & scope, Author Instructions clearly provided

21. Principles of Transparency and Best Practices in Scholarly Communication COPE, OASPA, WAME & DOAJ have collaborated to identify principles of transparency and best practice. https://doaj.org/bestpractice The principles are largely derived from the criteria developed by the Directory of Open Access Journals

22. How does DOAJ spot Questionable Publishers/Journals?

23. • Low publishing quality Journal name, website , peer review, publisher , ownership , volume of articles, advertisements , prominent soliciting for editors, ambiguous company address, many journals and few articles • Low scientific quality focus , format, self-citations, plagiarism • Malpractice false claims, hidden costs, spamming authors, wrong information Detecting Questionable journals

24. • Inappropriate marketing practices e.g. Spam emails • Journal titles with “International”, “American” or “European” • Very broad scope, multidisciplinary • Fake impact factors • Advertise very quick publishing • Advertise a relative low publication fee • No or little quality control of articles • Low-standard peer review process or even don’t have peer review at all Detecting Questionable journals (contd.)

25. • Publishers deemed questionable will not be able to re-apply for listing for up to three years • An appeal procedure is in place • Transparent : We have a publicly available list of journals added and removed Questionable journals – Our Response

26. Questionable Journals – Indian Context DOAJ is keen to support UGC*, India in its efforts to stop the proliferation of questionable journals in India In early Mar 2018, DOAJ sent a letter to UGC with the recommendation to include OA journals listed in DOAJ into the UGC-approved list of journals. We look forward to a positive response.. * University Grants Commission, New Delhi India.

27. Addn stuff abt DOAJ DOAJ listed in Top 10 platforms for listing Creative Commons work https://stateof.creativecommons.org/# data OASPA TO REQUIRE DOAJ LISTING FOR SINGLE-JOURNAL PUBLISHERS https ://blog.doaj.org/2018/08/07/news-oaspa-to-require-doaj-listing-for-single-journal-publishers / DOAJ is supported by more than 500 libraries and academic institutions around the world . https:// doaj.org/members

28. Reference https://blog.scholasticahq.com/post/interview.doaj /

29. Thanks to All the Library Consortia, Universities and Publishers and our Sponsors for the financial support to DOAJ!

30. Thank you for your attention! [email protected]