The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and Crossref have renewed their partnership with new objectives focused on improving scholarly metadata and expanding support for journals in low- and middle-income countries. The organizations stated that the renewed collaboration reflects a shared commitment to improving sustainable, equitable services and infrastructure in scholarly communication.
DOAJ and Crossref have worked together since 2021, primarily to support the dissemination and use of scholarly research through online technologies and regional and international networks, partners, and communities. According to the organizations, the partnership has contributed to building institutional capacity and supporting sustainability across the global scholarly communication ecosystem.
The continued collaboration also reflects a shared community between the two organizations. Currently, almost 90 percent of DOAJ journals are represented in Crossref. The renewed collaboration will support several initiatives.
The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) plans to enhance how article-level metadata is handled across its platform by improving the ingestion, processing, storage, and display of this information. The planned updates include incorporating author affiliations and persistent identifiers, open references, and expanding metadata harvesting. These improvements are expected to support both direct users of DOAJ and a wider range of services that rely on its metadata, including discovery p, aggregation, and research analytics services.
The collaboration will also support the continued development of the DOAJ Ambassador Program, a global network of representatives primarily based in low- and middle-income countries. Through this program, ambassadors help journal editors understand and apply good practices in open access publishing while organizing workshops, webinars, and local events within their regions. Ambassadors also work with regional partners and policymakers and promote awareness of DOAJ and publishing standards within local scholarly communities.
Crossref will support ambassador travel and the organization of workshops and events as part of the partnership. The renewed partnership allows DOAJ to continue its work on interoperability, including improving how scholarly infrastructures connect and exchange information, while aligning with the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure. Notably, DOAJ helps journals adopt good publishing practices, while Crossref provides the infrastructure to enable journals to be included in the global scholarly record.
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