Directory of Open Access Journals

Modified on Wed, May 30, 2018 at 1:55 PM

DOAJ inclusion 


The eScholarship team is dedicated to building the scholarly reputation of its journals, and we think scholarly indexing is an important part of this process. A presence in the DOAJ is a great place to start.


After your journal has received an ISSN and chosen a license, it may be eligible for indexing in the Directory of Open Access Journals. There are multiple benefits to being indexed in DOAJ, including expanding the online presence of your journal and increasing the discoverability of its articles. For a more complete list of DOAJ benefits, please see the attached flier.


Eligibility and application 


We are happy to consult with journal editors about whether their journals are eligible for inclusion in the DOAJ. We are also happy to apply directly on your behalf. If you are interested in applying to the DOAJ, you may find this spreadsheet of DOAJ application instructions for eScholarship journal editors useful. It contains all of the questions included in the DOAJ application, along with additional instructions specifically for eScholarship journals. We recommend downloading this spreadsheet and filling out all the information for your journal before you begin the application (https://doaj.org/application/new), as the application does not allow you to save your progress and return later. 


Uploading metadata to the DOAJ


After your journal has been accepted into the DOAJ, you can upload article-level metadata directly to the directory. 


Here are the steps to upload the metadata from your journal into the DOAJ

  • First log in as a journal editor. From there, you'll see an export link from OJS to DOAJ here: https://submit.escholarship.org/ojs/index.php/your_journal's_URL/manager/importexport/plugin/DOAJPlugin
  • Click the "export journal" link. An XML file will download on your computer.
  • You'll need to make one change to this XML file before you upload it to the DOAJ, which is changing the "publisher record" field. For each case, the publisher record ark needs to be changed to the eSchol item URL:
  • Once you've made this change in the XML, follow the instructions on the DOAJ website here: https://doaj.org/publishers#upload
  • to format and upload the XML file properly.


Please contact us for information about logging into the DOAJ eScholarship account.