A new agreement between DOAJ and OhioLINK paves the way for the sustainability of vital open access library infrastructure, key to the future of science and research. DOAJ curates and indexes over 17,000 peer-reviewed, open access journals from around the world in a free and independent database.
The partnership renews a long-standing alliance between Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and OhioLINK, making it easier for OhioLINK consortium members to support DOAJ at a time when the open access movement is gaining momentum. COVID-19 highlighted the importance of vetted, high-quality online academic research materials as demand for open access infrastructure, such as DOAJ, increased.
OhioLINK is Ohio’s statewide academic library consortium, serving 117 libraries at 88 institutions of higher education and the State Library of Ohio. At least twenty-six of OhioLINK’s members have already chosen to support DOAJ, including 5 public colleges and universities, regionals and branches, 16 private colleges and universities, and 5 community and technical colleges.
“We are happy to give our members the opportunity to strengthen the open access ecosystem,” said OhioLINK Executive Director Amy Pawlowski. “Our member libraries recognize the value of DOAJ’s work with editors and publishers to improve the quality and discoverability of open access research journals. Underwriting this valuable work ensures that it will be able to continue.”
“We are delighted to work together with OhioLINK’s members to safeguard the future of open access scholarly publishing”, said Lars Bjørnshauge, DOAJ Founder and Managing Director. “OhioLINK’s support shows how important institutions of higher education in the USA are in maintaining the quality and availability of open access journals for all”.
[This announcement is also posted at DOAJ.org.]
About OhioLINK: Connecting libraries, learning and discovery
Established in 1992, the Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK) is Ohio’s statewide academic library consortium serving 117 libraries, 88 institutions of higher education plus the State Library of Ohio, and more than 800,000 students. Delivering both IT infrastructure and content negotiation, OhioLINK provides students and faculty with access to digital research collections rivaling top university libraries in the United States and internationally—at a fraction of the cost. OhioLINK also connects library services, print and digital collections among its member institutions and manages collaborative services, including eTutoring, statewide Affordable Learning textbook initiatives and open educational resources. OhioLINK is a member of the Ohio Technology Consortium within the Ohio Department of Higher Education.
About DOAJ
DOAJ is a community curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer reviewed journals. DOAJ deploys more than one hundred carefully selected volunteers from among the community of library and other academic disciplines to assist in the curation of open access journals. This independent database contains over 17,000 peer-reviewed open access journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, arts and humanities. DOAJ is financially supported worldwide by libraries, publishers, and other like-minded organizations. DOAJ services (including the evaluation of journals) are free for all, and all data provided by DOAJ are harvestable via OAI/PMH and the API. See https://doaj.org/ for more information.
