Since we opened our new application form on 19th March 2014, 187 new journals have been accepted into the DOAJ. All 187 journals meet the new and extended DOAJ criteria, as required by the new application form. 13 applications have been rejected outright and a further 127 applications are pending further information or clarification from the publisher. In the same period, the number of journals removed from DOAJ, because they failed to meet DOAJ criteria, is 9. This is on top of the 92 journals that were removed in the first quarter of 2014.
Even though the DOAJ application form grew from 6 to 56 questions, the simple fact that we now request more information from a publisher upfront means that our editorial team is able to assess a journal’s honesty, transparency and value more effectively than before. With the Associate Editors and Editors coming on board, we will be well prepared for the existing ~9700 journals already in DOAJ when they begin the reapplication process.
We currently estimate that the reapplication process will begin in earnest in the 3rd quarter of this year. We will email every publisher to let them know when they may reapply. By the end of 2014, we hope to have a large number of journals reapplied and re-accepted into DOAJ.
[Updated 18th August 2014]
Will you e-mail all publishers at the same time? Or do you follow some kind of schedule where some publishers will get informed “in the 3rd quarter of this year” and other publishers will get informed “by the end of 2014”?
Hi Dieter, we will send an email out to all publishers at the same time. Dom
How does one become part of the network
Hi Jonas, which network are you referring to?
HOW DOES DOAJ COPE WITH ITS WORKLOAD?
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DOAJ: “We currently estimate that the reapplication process will begin in earnest in the 3rd quarter of this year.” “We will send an email out to all publishers at the same time.”
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We are now in the 4th quarter of 2014. Did I miss a notification that reapplication has started? If not, I can conclude that reapplication did not start as planned. So, more delays?
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I think there are also many new journals with their applications piling up by now (without having even seen any kind of notification). Do you have statistics on this? How many journals are in the waiting line? Does DOAJ intend to give an update to these applicants?
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On 2014-03-04 DOAJ sent an e-mail to those who applied and volunteered as Associate Editors: “We have not completed the selection of new Associate Editors … We will come back to you when we are ready.” Does DOAJ intend to give an update to these applicants? (I read the notice from 2014-06-09: http://doajournals.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/crowdsourcing-librarian-power )
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MY LITTLE DOAJ-STATISTIC and MATHEMATICAL LOOK INTO DOAJ’s FUTURE
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I looked at the number of journals added on https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/183mRBRqs2jOyP0qZWXN8dUd02D4vL0Mov_kgYF8HORM/edit#gid=0
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May: 97
June: 70 (27 less than in previous month)
July: 51 (19 less than in previous month)
August: 49 (2 less than in previous month)
September: 41 (8 less than in previous month)
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On average DOAJ reviewed each upcoming month 14 journals less than in the previous month. With this assumed linear trend, DOAJ will stop reviewing journal applications at the end of the year 2014. We know a decline is mostly asymptotic and not linear. So it will take longer (mathematically speaking, it will take forever to stop). How does DOAJ want to manage to review the outstanding 9700 journals for reapplication? With the initial rate of about 100 journals per month, checking all reapplications would finish in 2022.
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Sorry for my provoking statistical look into DOAJ’s future. You know of my positive attitude towards DOAJ’s activities. I offered my help – an answer is pending …
Hi Dieter,
I will take each of your questions/comment in turn. My answer is preceded with DM.
> Did I miss a notification that reapplication has started?
DM: No, no notifications have been sent out yet.
> So, more delays?
DM: yes our progress is delayed but only for the right reasons. We want to get the re-application process 100% correct the first time and it is vital to us that all our publishers—be they small, single journal publishers or the very large, multi-journal publishers—have a seamless user experience when reapplying. Our priority is to implement a solution that will work for everyone and this one-size fits all takes time.
> I think there are also many new journals with their applications piling up by now (without having even seen any kind of notification).
DM: it is important to retain the distinction between the process for new applications, which is live, and RE-applications which is not yet live. In this context, new applicants receive only a notification once a decision is reached on their application.
> Do you have statistics on this? How many journals are in the waiting line?
DM: We don’t have those yet. We’re still ramping up our crowd-sourced reviewing process and any stats we release now would not be representative.
> Does DOAJ intend to give an update to these applicants?
DM: upon submission of a new application, we tell all applicants that they may send an email requesting an update to if they have not heard anything within 3 months of the submission date.
> On 2014-03-04 DOAJ sent an e-mail to those who applied and volunteered as Associate Editors: “We have not completed the selection of new Associate Editors … We will come back to you when we are ready.” Does DOAJ intend to give an update to these applicants? (I read the notice from 2014-06-09: http://doajournals.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/crowdsourcing-librarian-power )
DM: when we started the Associate Editor initiative, we started with a pilot program to test new site functionality. We created 3 pilot groups. The pilot was successful and we are now proceeding with creating more groups. Any applicant fulfilling the correct criteria for the group being created will be contacted in due course.