re: Year End Investments Towards Open Access DOAJ

[Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>]

One more very important addition to my list of Year End Investments
Towards Open Access, DOAJ!

Kudos to DOAJ for an innovative approach to long-term 
sustainability of open access - and, for rapid responsiveness to 
suggestions for improvements to the model!

DOAJ is an open access resource - it is, and will remain free - 
to connect readers and authors with open access journals.  DOAJ 
has just announced a membership program, designed to provide the 
economic support needed for long-term open access.  Please 
consider joining!

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) maintains a 
professionally vetted list of fully open access, peer-reviewed 
journals.  Currently, there are 2,577 journals listed in DOAJ.

DOAJ is a wonderful investment for libraries - a way of keeping 
track of those open access journals which is a great deal more 
efficient than having every library try to keep up by ourselves. 
In addition to journal metadata, DOAJ offers search services for 
journals by title, subject, or keyword, and 769 journals are 
searchable at the article level as well.

DOAJ is, and will remain, free.  The DOAJ membership program 
provides rights to value-added features, such as rights to use 
DOAJ membership in marketing activities, and rights to lists of 
recently added or removed titles.

The DOAJ membership program has generated tremendous interest 
among libraries and consortia, around the world.  Many have 
offered suggestions for improvement to the membership categories, 
particularly for libraries in developing countries, who want to 
provide support but cannot afford to do so at levels that make 
sense at European libraries.

In response, DOAJ has just posted an Update to the DOAJ 
Membership Program, providing a flexible means for participation 
for libraries and consortia for whom the regular membership 
program is not affordable.  Details can be found at: 
http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=loadTempl&templ=070216

Watch for an official DOAJ announcement in the near future.

Kudos to current DOAJ sponsors:  The National Library of Sweden
(http://www.kb.se), Axiell AB (http://www.axiell.se) and Ebsco
Information Services (http://www.ebsco.com) and CSA (http://
www.csa.com).

The participation of the commercial sector in particular is 
welcome, and illustrates the potential for partnerships between 
open access initiatives and library commercial services, for 
mutual benefit.

For libraries wishing to consider the new, flexible membership 
model, here are some thoughts.

If you had to pay for cataloguing copy for 2,500 journals, how 
much would this cost?  Currently, DOAJ is adding new titles at 
about a rate of 1.5 titles per calendar day - roughly 500 a year. 
Would it make sense to contribute what you would pay for 
cataloguing for 500 journals to DOAJ?

DOAJ is a search service, for 2,500 journals.  Because open 
access is happening around the world, DOAJ includes many titles 
that have not been included in traditional services.  There is a 
tremendous diversity in DOAJ - journals published in different 
areas of the world, written by a very international audience.

What would be a reasonable cost for such a search service?  The 
membership fee for an individual library is 400 Euros.  Is there 
a comparable resource - full, non-embargoed access to over 2,500 
peer- reviewed journals - at such a low cost?

Heather Morrison, M.L.I.S.
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com