DOAJ – Directory of Open Access Journals
- June 14, 2024
- Posted by: Yury Subachev, PhD
- Categories: For publishers, For young scientists, Paper publication
Open access journals are a good source for finding scholarly articles. They provide an opportunity to read and download articles for free, without subscription or other conditions. The DOAJ list of open access journals helps to find such sources.
This article will tell you:
- what open access is;
- what Open Access licences are available;
- how to use the DOAJ list;
- where else you can look for open access sources.
Open access is the future of scientific literature and we intend to prove it. Let us start!
Open Access Journals are peer-reviewed scientific editions. They provide readers with an opportunity to use content for free, without registration, subscription or any additional conditions.
Articles can not only be read but also copied, distributed, and referenced in your papers.
Open access extends the audience, which is beneficial for the author, the journal and its readers. The scope of viewing and citation grows as well as the scientometric indicators. The opportunity to get acquainted with a wide range of sources for free “introduces” to the scientific community the publications that would otherwise be available to a limited number of people since no university library can subscribe to all journals.
What obligations and restrictions does open access impose on the user? What is allowed and what is not permitted? The consumer’s rights are limited by the type of licence permitting to distribute the work.
2. Types of Open Access licences.
The Creative Commons (CC) open access licence describes the possible ways to handle the content. It consists of a brief description and a detailed legal document drawn up in accordance with the valid copyright law.
Presently, the licence exists in six versions, each with its own letter code:
Thus, all types of Creative Commons licences require attribution. They are valid worldwide for the duration of the copyright to the work. The licence type is indicated by a letter code.
3. What is DOAJ?
Directory of Open Access Journals – DOAJ – is an independent non-profit organisation that has existed since 2003. It is the main aggregator of Open Access journals. Today, the directory contains 18,650 Open Access journals from 134 countries covering all fields of science and technology.
The DOAJ team is made up of volunteers who live in 45 countries and speak 36 languages.
The directory considers its mission to popularise Open Access journals, increasing their recognition, citation and influence. It also covers new scientific periodicals.
Information about added and withdrawn journals is constantly updated and published in Google Docs.
The quality of DOAJ journals meets strict criteria. To be included in the directory, a journal must review and edit papers to be published. Quality control is carried out by a team of editors and experts and confirmed by the largest scientific literature directories, Scopus and Web of Science.
The user interface is adapted for iPhone and Android devices, Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, as well as macOS, Linux and Windows, including mobile devices.
The platform provides separate tools for searching journals and articles. The search can be specified using the “Subject” filter.
4. How does a journal get into the DOAJ directory?
Volunteers from around the world participate in the selection of journals. In addition, DOAJ ambassadors work in many regions of the world. They disseminate information about the platform and help new candidates with the application and selection process.
DOAJ publishes an application guide to provide support for new applicants. The questions and help text are written in English in the user-friendly manner. The guide explains what is required to submit a journal, how the editorial process works, and what to do if your application is rejected.
Since 2014, DOAJ has been using more stringent criteria for journal acceptance. The number of questions in the application form has increased from 6 to 56. The questions mainly focus on publication quality, publication practices, and openness.
Consideration of new applicants does not always result in a favourable decision. The most common reason for rejection is the lack of clear information on the journal’s website about the reviewing type and publication fees. In addition, the DOAJ’s firm policy is to accept articles based on the opinion of at least two reviewers. Another possible reason for rejection is the absence of information about the authors’ rights and the terms of journal distribution.
To avoid rejection, it is best to state unambiguously that the publication is free of charge and that the authors will not be charged for preparation, placement and printout of the materials. Specify on the journal’s website who owns the copyright to the published works and what manipulations with the content are possible. For this, specify the CC licence type. DOAJ journals generally use the CC Attribution licence for publication.
5. Seven sources for searching open access scholarly literature
The number of platforms hosting Open Access journals is constantly increasing. Below are some of them.
- FreeFullPDF is a website posting free scientific articles. The platform covers all freely available scientific content, i.e. more than one hundred million PDF files. Using its search engine, you will find publications, patents and dissertations, as well as useful search tips and a social network for scientists.
You can enter the title, abstract, author, materials and methods, results, conclusion and references in the search box.
Authors can post their work on the website themselves; to do so, you need to create an account.
- EDP Open is a platform that provides access to the publications of EDP Science (Édition Diffusion Presse Sciences), a leading French publisher posting works in the field of medicine, natural and applied sciences. EDP Science publishes over 50 Open Access journals in the English and French languages. It has been in existence since 1920.
EDP Open offers around 275,000 high-quality articles, books and conference proceedings to its readers. In addition, the platform offers a digital archive of articles by internationally renowned scholars.
EDP Open articles are indexed by leading citation directories worldwide.
The simple and functional interface makes it easy to find the right sources. It is adapted for tablets, mobile devices and e-books. Active links provide access to cited articles via CrossRef, PubMed, MathSciNet and NASA ADS. A qoute can be generated using CrossRef Cited-by Linking software.
Readers can set up alerts on recent publications and recommendations for thematic reading. Scientometric indicators for articles and journals are available.
- Elsevier publishes peer-reviewed journals and books in physical and engineering sciences, life and health sciences, social sciences and humanities on the ScienceDirect platform. Check the “open access” box in the filters, and 600 journals with 3.3 million fully open access articles will be brought to your attention.
Elsevier collaborates with leading publishers of scientific literature and makes their content available on its platform.
Thematic pages are embedded in the articles to familiarise the readers with terms and concepts. You can set alerts on new publications on the sought subject and receive recommendations. The platform also has a remote access function. The browsing history for the last 100 search items is saved, which can be edited. Scopus citation data can be viewed directly on the ScienceDirect platform.
- Taylor & Francis is one of the oldest European academic publishers issuing 180 fully open access journals. The company was founded in 1852. Currently it is one of the top 5 largest worldwide publishers of scientific literature.
Published journals belong to the domain of social sciences and humanities, technologies, medicine and health care. The Taylor & Francis.Open platform provides search by the author, keywords and DOI. Filters by subject area help to specify the results.
- Thieme Open is a platform that provides access to Open Access content offered by the Thieme German publishing group. Thieme Group was founded in 1886 and currently has offices worldwide. It publishes 63 fully open access journals with a profile in chemistry and medicine in English and German.
The journals undergo thorough independent peer review. All articles meet the highest quality of editorial, authoring and production services.
- The American publishing house Wiley has been in existence since 1807. Currently, it publishes 230 open access journals that cover a wide range of scientific disciplines: natural, technical, social and human sciences, medicine and health care.
One can find journals, books and reference books on the Wiley Online Library platform, filter them by publication date, subject area, publisher and author.
A registered user may save search results and settings as well as full texts of articles. Remote access through one’s account or the Google Scholar system is possible for institutional users.
Alerts are set up in your account and come to your email.
- Free Journal Network (FJN) is a non-profit US organisation that promotes open access journals. The index predominantly includes journals that do not charge payment for publication of articles. The publications cover most scientific disciplines, are usually concise in scope and are often multilingual. More than half of the journals specialise in mathematical sciences.
Conclusion
Lately, the number of open access scholarly editions has been increasing rapidly. Many journals are completely switching to the Open Access model or use hybrid models. This is due to the fact that open access greatly increases the visibility of a source, the scope of viewing and referencing, and contributes to the growth of the authors’ and journals’ rating.
There are several standard open access licences describing user rights. The most commonly used licence for scientific literature is the CC Attribution (CC BY). It allows users to read and use papers (including for commercial purposes) on the condition of attribution of the original document’s author.
Today, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is the main aggregator of open access journals.
Open access publishing offers great benefits to readers, authors and journals. Although not all Open Access publications meet high quality requirements the future certainly belongs to the open access practice.
