<div dir="ltr">Heather,<div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US">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.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US">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.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US">Somewhere we must draw a line to tell whether a journals actually is a journal.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US">Lars Bjørnshauge</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US">Managing Director</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US">DOAJ</span></p></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Aug 15, 2019 at 5:55 PM Heather Morrison <<a href="mailto:Heather.Morrison@uottawa.ca">Heather.Morrison@uottawa.ca</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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Thanks Lars.<br>
<br>
DOAJ de-lists journals that fall below a certain level of activity (5 articles per year, right?)<br>
<br>
If people are relying on DOAJ to identify quality journals, this is problematic from a number of perspectives.<br>
<br>
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.
<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.
<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
best,<br>
<br>
Dr. Heather Morrison<br>
Associate Professor, School of Information Studies, University of Ottawa<br>
Professeur Agrégé, École des Sciences de l'Information, Université d'Ottawa<br>
Principal Investigator, Sustaining the Knowledge Commons, a SSHRC Insight Project<br>
<a href="http://sustainingknowledgecommons.org" target="_blank">sustainingknowledgecommons.org</a><br>
<a href="mailto:Heather.Morrison@uottawa.ca" target="_blank">Heather.Morrison@uottawa.ca</a><br>
<a href="https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/706" target="_blank">https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/706</a><br>
<hr style="display:inline-block;width:98%">
<div id="gmail-m_9039017442908091698divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> <a href="mailto:goal-bounces@eprints.org" target="_blank">goal-bounces@eprints.org</a> <<a href="mailto:goal-bounces@eprints.org" target="_blank">goal-bounces@eprints.org</a>> on behalf of Lars Bjørnshauge <<a href="mailto:lars@arl.org" target="_blank">lars@arl.org</a>><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, August 15, 2019 8:55:34 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci) <<a href="mailto:goal@eprints.org" target="_blank">goal@eprints.org</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [GOAL] DOAJ: handmaiden to despots? or, OA, let's talk</font>
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<div style="font-size:9pt;font-family:calibri;color:rgb(255,66,51)"><b>Attention : courriel externe | external email</b></div>
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<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">Hello Heather,
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<p class="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">
<span lang="EN-US">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 </span>based on extensive feedback from the community<span style="font-size:11pt">: </span><a href="https://blog.doaj.org/2019/08/05/myth-busting-doaj-indexes-predatory-journals/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);font-size:11pt" target="_blank">https://blog.doaj.org/2019/08/05/myth-busting-doaj-indexes-predatory-journals/</a></p>
<p class="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">
<span lang="EN-US">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.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">
<span lang="EN-US">Best</span></p>
<p class="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">
<span lang="EN-US"><br>
</span></p>
<p class="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">
<span lang="EN-US">Lars Bjørnshauge</span></p>
<p class="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">
<span lang="EN-US">Managing Director</span></p>
<p class="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">
<span lang="EN-US">DOAJ</span></p>
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<div class="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_gmail_attr">On Thu, Aug 15, 2019 at 8:08 AM Heather Morrison <<a href="mailto:Heather.Morrison@uottawa.ca" target="_blank">Heather.Morrison@uottawa.ca</a>> wrote:<br>
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<blockquote class="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);display:inline">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.</span>
<div><font color="#111111" face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:13px"><br>
</span></font></div>
<div><font color="#111111" face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:13px">Sustaining the knowledge commons full post:</span></font></div>
<div><font color="#111111" face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:13px"></span></font><a href="https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2019/08/14/doaj-handmaiden-to-despots-or-oa-we-need-to-talk/" id="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_gmail-m_3440433274376840813gmail-m_-7290734548247002595LPlnk360933" target="_blank">https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2019/08/14/doaj-handmaiden-to-despots-or-oa-we-need-to-talk/</a>
<div id="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_gmail-m_3440433274376840813gmail-m_-7290734548247002595Signature">
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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">best,</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">Dr. <span style="font-size:12pt">Heather Morrison</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">Associate Professor, School of Information Studies, University of Ottawa</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">Professeur Agrégé, École des Sciences de l'Information, Université d'Ottawa<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"></p>
<span id="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_gmail-m_3440433274376840813gmail-m_-7290734548247002595ms-rterangepaste-start"></span>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:16px">
Principal Investigator, Sustaining the Knowledge Commons, a SSHRC Insight Project</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:16px">
<a href="http://sustainingknowledgecommons.org" target="_blank">sustainingknowledgecommons.org</a></p>
<span id="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_gmail-m_3440433274376840813gmail-m_-7290734548247002595ms-rterangepaste-end"></span>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><a href="mailto:Heather.Morrison@uottawa.ca" target="_blank">Heather.Morrison@uottawa.ca</a><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><a href="https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/706" class="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_gmail-m_3440433274376840813gmail-m_-7290734548247002595OWAAutoLink" target="_blank">https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/706</a></p>
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-- <br>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail-m_9039017442908091698x_gmail-m_3440433274376840813gmail_signature">
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<div>Lars Bjørnshauge<br>
Managing Director DOAJ (<a href="http://www.doaj.org" target="_blank">www.doaj.org</a>)<br>
<br>
mobile phone: +45 53 51 06 03<br>
Skype-Id: lbj-lub0603 - Twitter: elbjoern0603<br>
e.mail: <a href="mailto:lars@arl.org" target="_blank">e</a><a href="mailto:lbjoern0603@gmail.com" target="_blank">lbjoern0603@gmail.com</a><br>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div>Lars Bjørnshauge<br>Managing Director DOAJ (<a href="http://www.doaj.org" target="_blank">www.doaj.org</a>)<br><br>mobile phone: +45 53 51 06 03<br>Skype-Id: lbj-lub0603 - Twitter: elbjoern0603<br>e.mail: <a href="mailto:lars@arl.org" target="_blank">e</a><a href="mailto:lbjoern0603@gmail.com" target="_blank">lbjoern0603@gmail.com</a><br></div><div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>