The drive towards Open Access (OA) publishing is witnessing unprecedented momentum, with a growing number of journals transitioning to OA and a surge in community-led publishing initiatives worldwide. While these developments are promising, they also coincide with a rise in unethical practices and predatory publishers preying on unsuspecting authors.
Amid this dynamic landscape, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) has played a crucial role in promoting trustworthy OA research. DOAJ has consistently evolved to meet the changing demands of OA journals, and as the responsibility to ensure the integrity of the index grows, it requires additional resources to sustain its valuable services. Furthermore, promoting global knowledge equity is essential for the future of OA, necessitating increased funding to support journals in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
DOAJ's significance transcends mere indexing; it has become a vital resource for organizations, funding agencies, governments, and OA policies relying on its indexing for compliance. This increased reliance has led to a surge in journal applications, straining DOAJ's current supporter models and resources.
While DOAJ continually enhances its processes and systems, the rising costs of maintaining its services can no longer be absorbed by the existing supporter models. Increased income is imperative to accommodate the growing number of journal applications and support investigations into questionable publishing practices, which are becoming increasingly resource-intensive.
Building on its adoption of the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure (POSI) and a pilot of the FOREST framework, DOAJ is committed to simplifying its complex funding models for libraries and publishers. This simplification aims to enhance transparency regarding funding sources and amounts, ensuring the community is informed about the organization's financial backing.
DOAJ has engaged in discussions with the scholarly community to ascertain its value and explore changes to its revenue models. These reflections, along with funding challenges for DOAJ and open scholarly infrastructures, have been shared in a recent LSE impact blog. DOAJ is now ready to unveil changes to its library supporter model for 2024.
In response to discussions with the community, DOAJ has streamlined its library support model to a single level, aligning with the rates recommended by SCOSS for sustaining open infrastructure. While expressing gratitude for libraries supporting DOAJ at the current basic rate, the organization will work closely with these supporters to facilitate a smooth transition to the new model.
Recognizing that its previous supporter model was applicable worldwide, DOAJ acknowledges that many libraries valuing its services have faced financial constraints in their support. Consequently, DOAJ is introducing a special rate to facilitate contributions from libraries and institutions in low and middle-income countries.
DOAJ has recently appointed a Community Manager tasked with actively engaging with the library community to nurture these vital relationships. Webinars have proven to be effective in this endeavor, and DOAJ plans to expand this service further in the coming year, encompassing technical, metadata, and community support.
As a non-profit, community-driven infrastructure, DOAJ is committed to reinvesting every contribution in its services and sustainability. Additional funding will enable DOAJ to maintain its swift application turnaround times despite the influx of applications, ensuring sufficient resources to combat questionable publishing practices. It will also support greater diversity in the index, providing increased assistance to journal editors in the global south and enhancing the visibility of institutional and Diamond journals.
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