The Toolkit was launched in June 2023 in English and French by DOAJ, OASPA and an international independent board of editors. It is now also available in Arabic, Portuguese and Spanish. Usage of the Toolkit continues to grow and the number of downloads at Zenodo is high. The Editorial Board is reviewing and updating the content. New content is being created.
The Open Access Journals Toolkit is an independent, open and multilingual resource for anyone involved in journal publishing. It aims to help individuals and organisations understand best practices around launching and running scholarly journals. From the start, it was intended as an open resource with specially created content for a global audience. A specially appointed international Editorial Board was commissioned to create the content, which they also peer review. The board is responsible for reviewing and updating the content, as well as writing new material.
We are very pleased to announce today that we have three new languages of the Toolkit available: Arabic, Portuguese and Spanish! The different language versions of the website are available here:
Arabic: https://www.oajournals-toolkit.org/ar/
English: https://www.oajournals-toolkit.org/
French: https://www.oajournals-toolkit.org/fr
Portuguese: https://www.oajournals-toolkit.org/pt-pt
Spanish: https://www.oajournals-toolkit.org/es
We thank Scielo Brazil and Scielo Mexico for the Portuguese and Spanish translations and Knowledge E and Mahmoud Khalifa, DOAJ Managing Editor and Ambassador, for the Arabic translation. With the generous help of these organisations/individuals, we reach a wider global community of users, as well as sticking to our original aim of maintaining an open and global resource.
Usage is steady and increasing
When we launched the Toolkit in June 2023, we were delighted to see the usage of the resource from Day One; since launch, we have had 28,000 unique visitors. It would seem that the PDF format is still a preferred format for many reading content online or offline: we have accrued 3050 views of the English PDF version and 160 views of the French version. Downloads are also encouraging. (Table 1)
| HTML (since launch) | PDF (Zenodo) | ||||
| Language | Launch date | Total page views | Unique visitors | Views | Downloads |
| Arabic* | 12 August 2024 | 905 | 280 | 165 | 181 |
| English | 26 June 2023 | 74,000 | 28,000 | 3051 | 2238 |
| French | 26 June 2023 | 3,900 | 1,400 | 161 | 111 |
| Portuguese | 20 January 2025 | 269 | 128 | 90 | 102 |
| Spanish | 20 January 2025 | 1200 | 474 | 800 | 820 |
Table 1: Usage statistics for all five languages since their launch date over both the website and Zenodo
*The Arabic version of the website was soft-launched in August 2024 but a major revision of the content was needed before we could publicise it. That revision has just been released and so we expect to now see usage of the Arabic version increase steadily.
Claire Redhead, Executive Director of OASPA, said: “It’s been great to see how well used the toolkit has been since it was launched, and the additional languages are really important to make sure it can be as useful as possible. Special thanks go to all of our fantastic Editorial Board members for their hard work on developing the content, and it’s great to be able to welcome new board members this year to add additional experience and perspectives.”
Useful content for a global community
Since launch, it has become clear which sections are extremely popular with the community in both English and French. The sections on indexing, getting started and running a journal perform extremely well, as do the sections on staffing and metadata.
Over time, we can see which sections should be expanded and where content is missing. Furthermore, the community has been submitting suggestions for new content since launch. We are delighted that, later this year, we will release an updated version of the Toolkit with new sections. The following new sections will be added:
- Administrative and legal aspects of running a journal: data and privacy policy; terms and conditions; ownership
- Long-term digital archiving and preservation
- Accessibility and accessibility remediation
Existing content will be updated including updated references and Further Reading lists in every section.
We are already planning content for the 2026 update, which will include new material on the use of AI, plagarism policies, preprints, version control and journal hosting platforms.
Independent Editorial Board
One of the Toolkit’s strengths is the independence of its editorial board. The Editorial Board is comprised of an international team, representing eight countries and twelve different organisations, and is key to the Toolkit’s success. The Board comes with insights on best practices and advice with a global perspective, working independently to create content and source materials for each Toolkit section. Editorial Board members are each responsible for their own sections and peer reviewing sections created by others.
This year, we welcome two new individuals to our Board: Haseeb Irfanullah, an independent consultant from Bangladesh, and Ramiro Santa Ana Anguiano, Mexican Academy of Language and Zearn, USA. Both of them bring new skills and perspectives to an already diverse and dedicated team.
Looking forward
Both OASPA and DOAJ work closely with journal editors, publishers and publishing organisations globally. In a time of geopolitical uncertainty, we hear from individuals and organisations who are struggling to maintain their publishing operations. Open, quality, peer-reviewed resources, such as the OA Journals Toolkit, are needed now more than ever.
We appeal to you, our community of users, to contact us with suggestions for new content or stories on how you are using the Toolkit in your daily work.
