About

About DOAJ

DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) was launched in 2003 with 300 open access journals. Today, this independent index contains almost 17 500 peer-reviewed, open access journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, arts and humanities. Open access journals from all countries and in all languages are accepted for indexing.

DOAJ is financially supported by many libraries, publishers and other like-minded organisations. Supporting DOAJ demonstrates a firm commitment to open access and the infrastructure that supports it.

DOAJ is a co-author to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing that provide the basis of the DOAJ basic criteria for inclusion.

Our mission

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.

DOAJ will work with editors, publishers and journal owners to help them understand the value of best practice publishing and standards and to apply those to their own operations.

DOAJ is committed to being 100% independent and maintaining its primary services and metadata as free to use or reuse for everyone.

Constitution

DOAJ is an independent, non-profit organisation managed by Infrastructure Services for Open Access C.I.C. (IS4OA), a community interest company registered in the United Kingdom and with a branch in Denmark.

DOAJ relies entirely on the voluntary donations of its supporters. Neither DOAJ or IS4OA receive grants or funding from any other source.

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

The work done by the DOAJ Team is supported by over 100 voluntary editorial staff who help us to review applications. All volunteers are bound by an agreement and must declare any conflicts of interest.

DOAJ also has a global network of Ambassadors who promote open access and best practice in their regions. Our Ambassadors are bound by an agreement and must declare all conflicts of interest.

Zero tolerance policy

We expect the members of our Team, our volunteers and our Ambassadors to always be treated courteously and with respect for the work they are doing. They should not be subject to abusive behaviour in any form, which includes:

  • rude, disrespectful and offensive behaviour, including derogatory remarks or anything which amounts to verbal or emotional abuse in person or in communications
  • sexually inappropriate comments or behaviour
  • racist and discriminatory abuse
  • threats of physical violence
  • aggressive and violent behaviour

Partnerships and collaborations

DOAJ partners with many organisations. The nature of the partnerships vary and may include membership, contracts for work, exchanges of information or services, initiative signatories, or access to information resources that assist DOAJ with our application review process.

Think. Check. Submit.

DOAJ is a proud founder of Think. Check. Submit. as well as a contributing organisation and long-standing committee member.

Established in 2015, Think. Check. Submit. was developed with the support of an international coalition of organisations from across scholarly communications in response to discussions about predatory publishing and amid a growing number of new and unfamiliar publishing options available for researchers.

Think. Check. Submit. provides tools and practical resources to educate researchers, promote integrity, and build trust in credible research and publications. Separate checklists for journals and books are available to guide researchers through the key criteria for selecting where to publish their research and are also invaluable to scholarly communications professionals who are advising researchers about these issues. Translations of the checklists are also available in a number of languages.

Diversity

DOAJ believes in the power and value of diversity in scholarly communications. DOAJ is an adopting organisation of the C4DISC Joint Statement of Principles. Adopting the Joint Statement of Principles demonstrates our support for improving diversity and inclusion in our industry.