(March 2015) After all the hard work that scholars put into their research, they are eager to have the papers reporting on their work widely read. Many understand that publishing their article in an open access journal provides them with the opportunity to reach the widest possible audience. However, lingering concerns about the quality of open access journals have kept some academics from fully embracing the innovative publishing model.
The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), a comprehensive international database of more than 10,000 open access journals, recently implemented a rigorous new vetting process that aims to raise the bar of quality for the journals it lists and filters out publications that are tarnishing the image of open access.
The DOAJ currently includes 10,000 journals, each of which has been invited to re-apply for inclusion in the directory under the new procedure. This unprecedented, comprehensive review is currently underway, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2015. Since the new criteria were established in March 2014, DOAJ has received 4,100 applications from journals, many duplicates. 700 have been included, 1,100 have been rejected and ,2300 are pending or in process. During the same period (12 months) 175 journals has been removed from DOAJ.
The complete announcement is here.
