[GOAL] DOAJ: handmaiden to despots? or, OA, let's talk

[Lars Bjørnshauge]

Heather,

It is correct that in the handling of an application of a journal it is a
requirement that a journal has published 5 articles in the previous year.
However we are not policing this after the acceptance of the journal on a
daily basis. If we discover that a journal has ceased publication for 1-2
years, we will remove the journal after communication to the publisher.

DOAJ is actually spending considerable resources to help smaller journals
to produce a good application, an application that can be a basis for the
assessment of the journal, including requiring quite many URL´s to enable
our staff and volunteers to work effectively. The DOAJ application form and
guides are available in quite a number of languages.

Somewhere we must draw a line to tell whether a journals actually is a
journal.


Lars Bjørnshauge

Managing Director

DOAJ

On Thu, Aug 15, 2019 at 5:55 PM Heather Morrison <
Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca> wrote:

> Thanks Lars.
>
> DOAJ de-lists journals that fall below a certain level of activity (5
> articles per year, right?)
>
> If people are relying on DOAJ to identify quality journals, this is
> problematic from a number of perspectives.
>
> This conflates quality and size. Frequency of publication is an indicator
> of activity, not quality. There are traditional scholarly communities that
> are small and have bi-annual conferences. A traditional list (Ulrich's)
> recognizes such journals. The more people rely on DOAJ, the greater the
> disadvantage for small journals. Over time, I anticipate that this will
> lead to disappearance of small independent journals and feed the existing
> tendency towards market concentration.
>
> There are many reasons why a small journal could become less active or
> inactive. In the case of an editor under a dictatorship, cessation of
> publication and an unresponsive editor could reflect actions of a dictator
> against an editor perceived as unfriendly to the government such as firing
> (hence loss of work email) or imprisonment of the editor. Removing a
> journal is this context effectively assists the dictator in the task of
> censorship.
>
> Would DOAJ consider retaining small and inactive journals? I recommend
> this simple step as a courtesy to small journals, to avoid inadvertently
> helping dictators, and to make DOAJ a more valuable service.
>
> Metadata elements for "ceased publication", "predecessor" for title
> changes and "active / inactive" are common in journal lists such as
> Ulrich's and the PMC journals.
>
> Currently DOAJ metadata includes multiple URLs for each journal. Fewer
> URLs and more of the information above would be helpful for people seeking
> content or publication venues. Fewer requests for URLs would make the
> application process less onerous for small journals. Last time I checked,
> the DOAJ application process requested 15 different URLs for each journal.
> This is a lot to ask of a small journal, especially if the editor's first
> language is not English.
>
> best,
>
> Dr. Heather Morrison
> Associate Professor, School of Information Studies, University of Ottawa
> Professeur Agrégé, École des Sciences de l'Information, Université d'Ottawa
> Principal Investigator, Sustaining the Knowledge Commons, a SSHRC Insight
> Project
> sustainingknowledgecommons.org
> Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca
> https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/706
> ------------------------------
> *From:* goal-bounces at eprints.org <goal-bounces at eprints.org> on behalf of
> Lars Bjørnshauge <lars at arl.org>
> *Sent:* Thursday, August 15, 2019 8:55:34 AM
> *To:* Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci) <goal at eprints.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [GOAL] DOAJ: handmaiden to despots? or, OA, let's talk
>
> *Attention : courriel externe | external email*
> Hello Heather,
>
> We agree that “Achieving the goals of the movement requires critical
> reflection and occasional changes in policy and procedure”. Over the years
> DOAJ has done this, listening to the changed and increasing demands from
> the community, for instance when in 2014 we implemented substantially
> stronger criteria for inclusion which were based on extensive feedback
> from the community:
> https://blog.doaj.org/2019/08/05/myth-busting-doaj-indexes-predatory-journals/
>
> Earlier today we responded to your statement that we reject open access
> journals that would be "suitable venues for critics of the despotic
> government”. DOAJ wants to index good quality open access journals, but
> they must apply and meet the selection criteria in order to be included. We
> might also discuss the issue about “despotic governments”, but currently we
> would find it very hard to 1) create selection criteria for DOAJ defining
> what constitutes a journal sponsored by a “despotic government” and 2)
> agree on a list of such governments.
>
> Best
>
>
> Lars Bjørnshauge
>
> Managing Director
>
> DOAJ
>
> On Thu, Aug 15, 2019 at 8:08 AM Heather Morrison <
> Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca> wrote:
>
> As any movement grows and flourishes, decisions made will turn out to have
> unforeseen consequences. Achieving the goals of the movement requires
> critical reflection and occasional changes in policy and procedure.The
> purpose of this post is to point out that the Directory of Open Access
> Journals (DOAJ) appears to be inadvertently acting as a handmaiden to at
> least one despotic government, facilitating dissemination of works subject
> to censorship and rejecting open access journals that would be suitable
> venues for critics of the despotic government. There is no blame and no
> immediately obvious remedy, but solving a problem begins with acknowledging
> that a problem exists and inviting discussion of how to avoid and solve the
> problem. OA friends, please consider this such an invitation.
>
> Sustaining the knowledge commons full post:
>
> https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2019/08/14/doaj-handmaiden-to-despots-or-oa-we-need-to-talk/
>
>
> best,
>
>
> Dr. Heather Morrison
>
> Associate Professor, School of Information Studies, University of Ottawa
>
> Professeur Agrégé, École des Sciences de l'Information, Université d'Ottawa
>
> Principal Investigator, Sustaining the Knowledge Commons, a SSHRC Insight
> Project
>
> sustainingknowledgecommons.org
>
> Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca
>
> https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/706
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>
>
>
> --
> Lars Bjørnshauge
> Managing Director DOAJ (www.doaj.org)
>
> mobile phone: +45 53 51 06 03
> Skype-Id: lbj-lub0603 - Twitter: elbjoern0603
> e.mail:  e <lars at arl.org>lbjoern0603 at gmail.com
> _______________________________________________
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>


-- 
Lars Bjørnshauge
Managing Director DOAJ (www.doaj.org)

mobile phone: +45 53 51 06 03
Skype-Id: lbj-lub0603 - Twitter: elbjoern0603
e.mail:  e <lars at arl.org>lbjoern0603 at gmail.com
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