progress report

“The Tick” is now live!

Now it’s easier to see which journals were accepted into the DOAJ under our new criteria, in other words, after March 2014. I posted a piece earlier this year where I explained that all journals accepted into DOAJ after that date would be marked with a green tick. We have now completed that work and “The Tick” is live on the site.

For every qualifying journal, The Tick appears in two places: in search results, alongside the journal’s name; and on the journal’s table of contents page.

 

The Tick in search results

The Tick in search results alongside the journal name

The Tick on a journal ToC page

The Tick on a journal’s table of contents page

(If you can’t see the Tick, then you will need to refresh the page: Ctrl +F5 on a PC, Cmd + R on a Mac.)

A progress report from DOAJ

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]