By Leena Shah Managing Editor, Ambassador for DOAJ 5th Annual Conference of Asian Council of Science Editors [ACSE]   Dubai, 21-22 March 2018 [https://theacse.com/acseconference.php]

1. Improving Open Access journals - Experiences
from working for DOAJ with OA journals
published in Asia
____________________________
By Leena Shah
Managing Editor, Ambassador for DOAJ
5th Annual Conference of Asian Council of Science Editors [ACSE]
Dubai, 21-22 March 2018 [https://theacse.com/acseconference.php]

2. Agenda
• Overview of OA journals from Asia indexed in
DOAJ
• DOAJ mission & basic criteria for inclusion
• How to improve OA publishing practices
ISSN
Editorial Board
Peer Review
OA Policy
Copyright & Licensing

3. OA journals in DOAJ - Overview

4. Applications are rejected either because they are questionable or
for poor publishing standards
OA journals in DOAJ - Overview

5. DOAJ Mission
DOAJ's mission is to increase the visibility, accessibility,
reputation, usage and impact of quality, peer-reviewed,
open access scholarly research journals globally,
regardless of discipline, geography or language.
DOAJ will work with editors, publishers and journal
owners to help them understand the value of best
practice publishing and standards and apply those to
their own operations.

6. DOAJ Criteria for Inclusion
The DOAJ criteria for indexing are based on
Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in
Scholarly Publishing*.
The Committee on Publication Ethics [COPE],
DOAJ, Open Access Scholarly Publishing
Association [OASPA] and World Association of
Medical Editors [WAME] are co-authors of these
principles.
* https://doaj.org/bestpractice

7. Why do some journals have poor publishing
standards?
- Lack of awareness and/or poor understanding
of basic criteria
- Small publishers with limited resources
looking for a quick launch of their OA journal
- Language barrier
- Could be a questionable publisher
Improving Publishing Standards of OA
Journals

8. Basic criteria for Inclusion in DOAJ
How can an OA journal fulfil the ‘Basic Criteria’ for
indexing in DOAJ ?
• ISSN
• APC & Article Submission Fees
• Editorial Board
• Peer review / Editorial process
• OA policy
• Copyright & Licensing

9. ISSN
• ISSN = International Standard Serial Number
• Assigned by local ISSN agency
• OA journal must have one ISSN registered at issn.org
• Can be for print and/or online version of journal
• Journals without an ISSN/any discrepancy will be
automatically rejected by DOAJ

10. Article Processing (APC) & submission
charges
Does the journal charge the author APC and/or article
submission fees?
Yes
• Mention the amount & currency
• Local authors vs Foreign authors
• Waiver of fees
No
• Mention explicitly on the website e.g.
“The journal does not charge any article submission fees.”

11. Editorial Board
Credibility of Editorial Board:
• Provide affiliation for all editorial board members, advisory
board, editor, (and reviewers, if listed)
• Provide email or links to author profile e.g. Scopus ID, SINTA
(Indonesian Index) or bio-data webpage of the author
Composition of members:
• The editorial board must include at least 5 members
• List the members along with their roles where necessary
• Especially for institutional publishers – Board must include
members from other universities as well
• International Journals must have an international advisory
board

12. Peer Review
• State and explain your peer review process clearly
• Editorial review is acceptable for Arts & Humanities
• Details of peer review process must be given online

13. Open Access Policy
State the OA policy on the journal homepage
Extended version
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely
available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are
allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the
full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose,
without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is
in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
OR
Brief version
This is an Open Access Journal + Creative Commons/equivalent License
on the same page.

14. Copyright
Author/s are the creator and hence the copyright owner of the article.
Copyright policy of the journal informs the reader about ownership of
the article if it is accepted. Either of the two things below can happen
Author retains the copyright
Author transfers the copyright to the journal
by signing a copyright transfer form
OR

15. Copyright – Best Practice
Best practice recommended by DOAJ:
Author continues to retain the copyright if
the article is published in the journal. The
publisher will need only publishing rights.

16. Copyright and License
• Copyright is easily confused with License
• Only the copyright holder can grant a
license.
Ownership → Copyright
Usage → License

17. Copyright
Common mistakes publishers make:
• Confuse content license with copyright
• Publish contradicting copyright policy
• Copyright statement conflicts with OA
• All rights reserved

18. Avoid stating License as the Copyright
Policy [Example 1]
Journal Copyright Notice
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License.
NOT
ACCEPTABLE
Journal Copyright Notice
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first
publication with the work simultaneously licensed under
a Creative Commons Attribution Licensethat allows others to
share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's
authorship and initial publication in this journal.
✓

19. Avoid conflicting copyright statements
[Example 2]
Copyright Policy : Author retains the copyright if the article is accepted..
website footer/full-text : ©Copyright 2017 Journal xxx. All Rights Reserved.
NOT
ACCEPTABLE
Copyright Policy : Author retains the copyright if the article is accepted..
✓ACCEPTABLE
Copyright © 2017 The Authors. All Rights Reserved (website design).

20. Avoid copyright statements in conflict with
OA [Example 3]
© Copyrights of all the papers published in Journal of XXX are with
its publisher, [x] [Country]. Users have the right to read,
download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of
articles in the journal, and that users can use and reuse material
in the journal as long as attribution is given when appropriate or
necessary. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any
form or by any means without the prior written permission of the
publisher. NOT
ACCEPTABL
E

21. All Rights Reserved
Creative Commons / equivalent BOAI-compliant license
applied to the journal content
and
website footer/full-text contains “All rights reserved”
Published articles and illustrations become the property
of the Journal
Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by [publisher
] on behalf of xxx. All rights reserved. This is an open
access article distributed under the Creative Commons
Attribution License 4.0 (CCBY), which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
NOTACCEPTABLE

22. Licensing
• Permission from the rights-holder or licensor, to
another person to use the work within the terms
described in the license
• Deals with how a work can be used, post publication
by anyone who accesses it
• DOAJ recommends using Creative Commons License
• Creative Commons provides 6 licenses for sharing
your work

23. Creative Commons

24. Creative Commons – Get it
Step 1 – Choose the license
Step 2 – Apply the license
- Provide a clear and simple explanation* of the terms
of the license
- Display the logo of the chosen CC license and provide
a link to the CC website
* https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

25. Creative Commons – article level
Best practice
recommended by DOAJ
• Add the licensing
terms within the full-
text of the article –
PDF /html
• Usually added near
the bottom of the 1st
page / cover page

26. General criteria
• Full text must be available without embargo
• One unique URL per article
• Journal website may have information in more
than one language. However, all the information
should be the same in all languages
• Journal must have at least 5 articles published in
the last calendar year
• Aim & scope, Author Instructions clearly provided
• Full (“gold”) OA – not hybrid

27. Understanding of basic criteria will help to
achieve the DOAJ mission:
- Encourage good publishing standards
- Encourage more OA journals from Asia to
apply for indexing in DOAJ
Is there a DOAJ representative in your country
who can help?
Basic Criteria for Inclusion

28. DOAJ Ambassadors
Ambassador program launched in June 2016:
Africa - 4 , China - 3, Middle East - 1, India - 3, Latin
America – 1,
In 2017, Four Ambassadors were selected from each of
these regions:
Indonesia & South Korea
https://doaj.org/about#ambassadors

29. References
Blog posts:
• Mitchell, D. (2015, May 19). COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING INCOMPATIBILITY
– PART 1 [Web blog post]. Retrieved March 14, 2018, from
https://blog.doaj.org/2015/05/19/copyright-and-licensing-
incompatibility-part-1/
• Olijhoek, T. (2015, June 02). COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING – PART 2 [Web
blog post]. Retrieved March 14, 2018, from
https://blog.doaj.org/2015/06/02/copyright-and-licensing-part-2/
• Olijhoek, T. (2018, February 27). COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING – PART 3
[Web log post]. Retrieved March 14, 2018, from
https://blog.doaj.org/2018/02/27/copyright-and-licensing-part-3/
Website
About The Licenses. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2018, from
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

30. Thanks to
All the Library Consortia, Universities and Publishers and our Sponsors for the
financial support to DOAJ!

31. Thank you for your attention!
leena@doaj.org