The Open Access Journals Toolkit covers topics across the journal development lifecycle and everyday operation, such as journal creation, costs, staffing, policy development, through to indexing and key technical aspects.
The Open Access Journals Toolkit aims to help the scholarly community start and manage open access journals.
Topics are organised according to the following six sections:
A brief history of the Toolkit
In 2022, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) held a consultation with a group of international open access experts, journal managers and editors, with support from Research Consulting. This investigative work looked into the potential need for an online resource to support new and established open access journals in navigating the rapidly changing landscape of open access publishing. A majority of contributors agreed that this would be a valuable asset, and helped define the early shape of the Open Access Journals Toolkit.
Following the initial consultation, DOAJ and OASPA set out to fully scope out and develop the Open Access Journals Toolkit. This included the formation of a diverse Editorial Board (see below) and the preparation of all contents available today, as well as web and branding design and content architecture testing. The Open Access Journals Toolkit design process began in November 2022 and ended in June 2023, when the website went live.
The Open Access Journals Toolkit will continue to be updated by the Editorial Board as the open access publishing landscape develops, and any changes and updates will be highlighted on relevant pages and reflected in the downloadable version of the Open Access Journals Toolkit.
Our Editorial Board
DOAJ and OASPA are very grateful for the ongoing support provided by the Editorial Board in keeping the Open Access Journals Toolkit up to date. We recognise the input and insights provided by the following experts representing a range of languages, territories, roles and organisations:- Alex Mendonça, Scielo
- Andy Byers, Janeway
- Andy Nobes, INASP
- Chris Hartgerink, Liberate Science GmbH
- Clarissa França Dias Carneiro, Berlin Institute of Health (BIH)
- Ivonne Lujano, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
- Katie Foxall, ecancer
- Rebecca Wojturska, University of Edinburgh
- Solange Santos, Scielo
- Susan Murray, African Journals OnLine (AJOL)
- Tom Olijhoek, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
- Wendy Patterson, Beilstein-Institut
Contact us
To get in touch for anything other than content suggestions or updates, please contact helpdesk@oajournals-toolkit.org.Acknowledgements
DOAJ and OASPA gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the Research Consulting team (Lucia Loffreda, Andrea Chiarelli, Elle Malcolmson, Frances Palmer, Ellie Cox, Rob Johnson) in managing the Open Access Journals Toolkit design and implementation process, as well as the work done by Studio Seventeen (Gareth Roberts, Chloe Morris, Ed Walsh) in building and maintaining the website.
All toolkit contents have been proposed, curated and drafted by Editorial Board Members. We acknowledge that AI-based tools have been used in the copyediting process alongside extensive human editing, to ensure consistency in readability, presentation and coverage of topics.
