DOAJ as a Gatekeeper for Quality

Open Access Journals

Presentation at NEICON/ASEP ConferenceMay 17, 2016, Moscow

tom@doaj.orgEditor-in-Chief DOAJ

•DOAJ was founded at Lund University – launched May 2003 with 300 journals

Basic demand then: A list of Open Access Journals

•And has been developing into: The authoritative go-to point for finding peer-

reviewed scholarly journals not based on the subscription model

THE MISSION…Changing an unsustainable scholarly communication system in ways that it can serve science,

our societies and the people on a global scale

Actual Status of DOAJ

• DOAJ currently lists 8,820 journals• 6,113 journals are searchable at article level• 3,300 journals have been removed after having failed to reapply for inclusion• 4,400 journals have submitted a reapplication• About 50 % of new applications get rejected

Journals removed from DOAJ

Actual Status of DOAJ

• DOAJ currently lists 177 journals from the Russian Federation• 42 journals have failed to reapply before the deadline• 42 have reapplications submitted• More than half of reapplications employ non-CC licenses• often they are contradictory in terms of copyright and usage conditions

The situation in the Russian Federation

Given reasons for being listed in DOAJ!• Increased visibility : 97%• Increased traffic : 85%• Prestige : 86%• Certification : 87%• Eligibility for support from OA-publication funds: 64%

• Better promotion : 80%• Increased submissions : 72%

Are open access journals more linked to bad publishing than supscription journals

• Not all subscription journals are in Scopus only 10-20,000 of 100.000• Not all open access journals are in DOAJ only 8 -10,000 of 35,000• No scientific evidence for the thesis• But open access has more exposure• Elsevier, Wiley and others are publishing new OA journals every

week

October 2013

February 201

We need Quality control

THE STING

Ways of Quality Control

Impact assessment ImpactStoryArticle quality peer-reviewJournal Quality DOAJUser Feedback Beall’s List

More and tighter criteria for…• Openness• Scientific quality• The Delivery of Technical Quality

Basic DOAJ Criteria

• Basic Journal Information• Quality and Transparency of the Editorial Process• Openness of the journal• Content Licensing • Copyright issues

The DOAJ SEALThe best you can get!

To qualify for the Seal the journal must:1. have an archival arrangement in place with an external party (Question 25). 'No policy in place' does not qualify for the Seal.2. provide permanent identifiers in the papers published (Question 28). 'None' does not qualify for the Seal.3.provide article level metadata to DOAJ (Question 29). 'No' or failure to provide metadata within 3 months do not qualify for the Seal.4. embed machine-readable CC licensing information in article level metadata (Question 45). 'No' does not qualify for the Seal.5. allow reuse and remixing of content in accordance with a CC BY, CC BY-SA or CC BY-NC license (Question 47). If CC BY-ND, CC BY-NC-ND, 'No' or 'Other' is selected the journal will not qualify for the Seal.6. have a deposit policy registered in a deposit policy directory. (Question 51) 'No' does not qualify for the Seal.7. allow the author to hold the copyright without restrictions. (Question 52) 'No' does not qualify for the Seal.

One cannot apply for the Seal. The Seal is awarded based on the information provided in the application. If you have any questions about any of the qualifiers, contact us.

• In current scholarly publishing there are no market mechanisms, no competition• This allows publishers to steadily increase prices way

above inflation• The high profits attract questionable publishers • It prevents reseachers access to knowledge• It leaves major parts of the world out of the loop

The Main Problem...

To change the publishing landscape we need to …• Foster competition in scholarly publishing• Develop new publishing channels• And make those attractive by offering excellent infrastructure

services• Have a change in scientist mentality with regards to open access

and open science• Have better ways to pinpoint questionable publishers

• Researchers will be rewarded based on What they publish• the actual content

• Researchers will be evaluated based on How they publish• whether it is open and reuseable or not

• Researchers will be credited for societal impact of their work as measured by new metrics

This can only happen when…

•More and much stronger funder and institutional mandates• Radical changes in the research evaluation system and

incentives for researchers to publish in the open!• Professional infrastructure services for Open Access• Criteria for discovery of questionable publishers

In Summary we need …

Infrastructure Needs

• Authors (and their advisors): want tools to choose reputable (open access) publishing channels• Funders and institutions: determine which publishing channels comply with

their requirements• Managers of OA-publication funds: wants guidance for selecting eligible

publishing channels for supporting APC-payments• Scholarly Communication Researchers want access to data to support their

research

Infrastructure Needs

•Publishers want (and appreciate)Certification / Prestige Eligibility for support from OA-publication fundsIncreased visibility Increased traffic More submissionsBetter promotion

Overview of services for Open Access(Knowledge Exchange Report jan 2016)

http://repository.jisc.ac.uk/6269/10/final-KE-

Report-V5.1-20JAN2016.pdf .

Examples of Services

• Journal Indexing services: PMC, DOAJ• Policy indexing: SHERPA, ROARMAP• Archiving services: LOCKSS• Repository indexing: OpenDOAR,ROAR• Identification: ISSN, DOI, ORCID• License conditions: OAS, HowOpenIsIt, QOAM• APC information:OpenAPC-de• Implementation OpenAccess: EIFL• Publishing Platforms: OJS, OLH, AJOL, SCIELO• User curated Services: Beall’s List

Open Access ButtonThink Check SubmitOpen Access Spectrum

Support services offered by DOAJ

• DOAJ offers support for choosing journals with approved and checked open access policies• DOAJ only lists journals with good publishing practices• DOAJ offers insight in publishing licenses used • DOAJ offers data on copyright conditions• DOAJ offers data on APC use in journals

For Authors’/ Funders

Support services offered by DOAJ

• Access to full text articles in many disciplines•Web search interface• API search • API search widget• DOAJ offers API for metadata uploading to publishers

For Readers/ publishers

Problems with Servicesaddressed by Dutch Presidency Conference on open science Amsterdam april 4-5, 2016

• Different organizations• Little coordination• Funding depending on charity• Lack of integration

Need for sustainable funding for essential services (DOAJ,SHERPAProposal to install coordinating body:Organizing funding, integration of services,quality monitoring

Ideas from the conference

Future possible services by DOAJ

• Integration of Open Access Spectrum tool How Open Is It detailed insight in open access licensing and copyright conditions• Online Help for funders in checking which journals comply with Funder

policies• Meta data harvester will allow access to more full text articles from a larger

number of journals• Active help for authors to choose where to publish• Help for authors on how to avoid questionable publishers• Access to more journals from the global south

Thank you for your attention!tom@doaj.org

lars

lars@doaj.org