As of 6 March 2024, DOAJ introduced journal labels in its metadata, starting with the Subscribe to Open (S2O) label. This label highlights journals committed to open access by converting from gated access through institutional subscriptions. Currently, 61 journals have received the S2O label. This new feature helps users identify open access journals more easily in search results and on individual journal pages. Additionally, DOAJ has updated its metadata with new CSV and JSON fields. DOAJ plans to explore more labels and update its application guide accordingly.

Le réseau des pépinières de revues scientifiques en accès ouvert Repères et le réseau Mir@bel présentent une affiche dans le cadre des journées du Printemps Couperin.
Ce poster met en avant des réalisations communes (et reproductibles) portées dans le cadre des projets FNSO Coopères et Mir@bel2022. Il donne à voir les processus qui permettent de valoriser les 185 revues des pépinières faisant partie de Repères à partir des données présentes dans la base Mir@bel.

A transformative step towards equitable scholarly publishing was taken with the launch of the European Diamond Capacity Hub (EDCH) in Madrid. This pioneering initiative aims to advance Diamond Open Access (OA) publishing across Europe, fostering inclusivity and collaboration in academic publishing. The launch event was hosted at the Museo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (MUNCYT) by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT). OPERAS, a leading research infrastructure for open scholarly communication in the social sciences and humanities, will serve as the fiscal host of the EDCH.

This review explores English-language, open access, PubMed/Scopus-indexed medical journals that allow free publication of image reports. It finds that only a few such journals exist, mostly in oncology and general medicine, with some representation from other specialties. Image reports, typically short and focused on practical, educational content, are important for medical knowledge transfer. Despite their limited scope, these reports are freely publishable and accessible in journals with international visibility, highlighting their ongoing educational value in the medical field.

The recording of OASPA’s online seminar held on 21 January 2025 What do we mean by quality in OA publishing?, is now available.

Efforts to establish sets of criteria that OA publishers need to meet in order to ensure equitable, transparent, and high-quality OA publishing were presented. It was also discussed how libraries and other scholarly communication actors could contribute to the evidence-based notion of quality in scholarly publishing.

In the context of open access (OA) publishing, the ISSN plays a crucial role in improving discoverability and organization of OA publications. By including persistent identifiers like ISSN in metadata, libraries can link resources and reduce confusion for users. The report emphasizes that metadata, including identifiers, improve content discovery, support interoperability, and streamline library workflows. Accurate and thorough metadata enable effective searching and evaluation, ensuring that OA publications are easily found and used. Publishers are encouraged to adopt and share detailed metadata, including ISSNs, to facilitate easier access and integration into library systems.

In 2023, OASPA members saw a 4% growth in open access publications, a significant slowdown compared to previous years. Fully OA journals, which accounted for 75% of articles, experienced a decline, while hybrid OA journals grew by 22%. CC BY licenses remain dominant, comprising 82% of fully OA and 60% of hybrid OA articles. The OA publishing market is highly consolidated, with the top five publishers accounting for 70% of total output. MDPI, Elsevier, and Springer Nature remain the largest contributors to OA publishing.

Open Access Articles Published by OASPA Members; Sources: OASPA publisher survey, OpenAlex, Delta Think analysis.

This study examined trends in the publication of open access (OA) and non-OA journals and articles from 2011 to 2021 using SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) data. Results revealed that while the number of OA journals grew significantly, their share of total publications remained lower than non-OA journals. The number of non-OA publishers slightly decreased, while OA publishers increased rapidly. OA journal article production rose across all publisher sizes, with top publishers seeing the largest growth. Notably, MDPI emerged as a global leader in OA journal article publishing.

As an adopter of the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure and a supporter of the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information, DOAJ is committed to making its metadata openly available for the community’s use. DOAJ’s metadata is reused across library systems, discovery services, search engines and research tools that help identify quality open-access journals.

In 2024, DOAJ has received sustaining support from Digital Science, EBSCO, NERAC, OA.Works. OCLC, OurResearch, SciFree, Sirsi Dynix and others. Their support contributes directly to DOAJ’s work in evaluating journals and curating metadata.