Directory of Open Access Journals: Finding an open access journal for your research

If you are looking at diversifying the places in which you publish journal articles to include more open access journals, the Directory of Open access Journals (DOAJ) is a resource that it’s worth getting acquainted with. Many of you may already be familiar with the resource, but as it’s open access week we thought that it’s worth looking at again.  

DOAJ is an independent database of over 17,000 peer-reviewed open access journals. It can be a great way to locate open access journals in your field and the directory includes journals from a wide range of disciplines and countries, covering 80 languages.  

Searching for an appropriate journal for your research 

There a number of ways to filter the search results on the home page to locate exactly what will be most useful to you.  

You can filter by Subject, language, licence, Publisher, and Publisher country.  

It is also possible to filter for journals with a DOAJ seal. The seal is awarded to journals demonstrating best practice in open access publishing by meeting a list of 7 criteria (this applies to 10% of journals listed in DOAJ). So if you are looking to publish in a journal with these credentials it’s worth searching for the DOAJ seal. 

Another useful filter allows you to see journals which do not charge publication fees. As you know, article processing charges (APCs) to make journal articles immediately open access can be extremely costly. Whilst DOAJ displays the article processing charges for all the journals listed in the database, it is possible to locate journals which do not charge them. To find APC free journals, try filtering for journals without article processing charges.  

Once you’ve located a journal that meets your subject and language criteria, you can then investigate further whether or not it is an appropriate venue for your journal article. DOAJ journal listings provide details of the aims and scope of the journal, editorial board, instructions for authors, publication fees, the licence applied to articles published in the journal, as well as the average amount of time from submission to publication. All of this should help you decide whether or not the publication meets your needs.  

Publishing your own journal 

If your department is publishing an open access journal, you may want to consider indexing the journal in DOAJ. Doing so offers a number of benefits including reputation, compliance with standards and best practice, funder compliance (an important consideration for researchers who might want to publish in your journal), discoverability and visibility, as well as an international audience for your journal. 

For more information on publishing in DOAJ, please see the DOAJ website or contact the scholarly communications team at WIRE@wlv.ac.uk.