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DOAJ Requirements: How to Get Your Journal Listed

DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) requires journals to be fully open access, have a valid ISSN, charge no fees for reading, have a peer review policy, and follow COPE publication ethics guidelines.

What Is DOAJ?

DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) is the largest curated index of peer-reviewed open access journals, maintained by Infrastructure Services for Open Access (IS4OA). Being listed in DOAJ is a standard requirement for:

•Demonstrating open access compliance to funders
•Qualifying for the DOAJ Seal (a quality mark for best-practice open access)
•Meeting the open access requirements of some CrossRef metadata standards
•Building author trust in the journal's legitimacy

Core DOAJ Requirements

Open access — All articles must be freely available online without embargo. The journal must state its open access policy on its website.

ISSN — A valid ISSN registered with the ISSN International Centre. Both E-ISSN and P-ISSN should be listed if applicable.

Peer review — The journal must conduct peer review (single-blind, double-blind, or open) and describe its peer review process on the journal website.

Publication ethics — The journal must have a visible publication ethics policy that covers plagiarism, authorship, conflicts of interest, and corrections/retractions.

No fees for readers — Readers must never be charged to access or download articles.

APC transparency — If the journal charges APCs, the amount must be stated clearly on the journal website before submission.

Journal website — Must include: aims and scope, editorial board with affiliations, author instructions, contact information, ISSN, and copyright/licensing information.

DOAJ Seal Requirements

The DOAJ Seal indicates best-practice open access. Additional requirements beyond basic listing:

•Creative Commons license — Articles must use CC BY, CC BY-SA, or CC BY-NC (not CC BY-ND or CC BY-NC-ND for full Seal)
•Author retains copyright — Authors retain copyright; the journal is granted a non-exclusive license to publish
•Metadata deposit — The journal must deposit article metadata directly to DOAJ via API or manual upload
•DOI registration — All articles must have DOIs registered through CrossRef, DataCite, or another DOI agency
•OAI-PMH — The journal must provide an OAI-PMH endpoint for metadata harvesting

Frequently Asked Questions

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