Abstract

TRISHCHENKO, Nataliia. DOAJ Media and Communications Journals: Business Models, Technical Aspects and Involvement in the International Scientific Process. OBS* [online]. 2019, vol.13, n.1, pp.212-225. ISSN 1646-5954.

Despite the open science movement having been actively developing for nearly two decades, the scientific community is still wary of open access journals, especially if their status is not supported by the imprint of a big publishing house. This article discusses the results of research into the websites of media and communications journals registered in DOAJ (the Directory of Open Access Journals). This process facilitated a general understanding of how these journals function, what resources are used to support them and what future prospects they face. During the research, which was carried out from August to September 2018, the websites of 181 journals indexed in the DOAJ database were analysed. 64 journals (35%) also agreed to participate in an anonymous survey, allowing additional information to be obtained. The results showed that almost a quarter of the analysed journals are indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus international citation databases, while 78% of the journals are associated with universities and scientific institutions that sponsor the publishing process. The majority of the journals registered in DOAJ are not run on a profit-making basis. High competition, lack of resources and administrative burdens are among the main obstacles to the development of Open Access journals.

Keywords : DOAJ; open access journals; media and communications; open science.

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