DOAJ
The trusted directory for vetted peer-reviewed open access journals. Ideal for verifying journal legitimacy.
OVERVIEW
What is DOAJ?
The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a community-curated index of high-quality, peer-reviewed open access journals and articles. Established at Lund University in 2003, it lists more than 20,000 journals from 140+ countries in 90+ languages, with all content freely accessible. DOAJ applies strict editorial criteria covering transparency, peer review, and licensing to vet listed journals. It serves researchers, librarians, and publishers as a trusted entry point for discovering reputable open access scholarship.
KEY FEATURES
What DOAJ does well
100% Open Access
Every indexed journal is fully open access and free to read.
Quality Vetted
Strict editorial standards filter out predatory journals.
Global Coverage
20,000+ journals from 140+ countries in 90+ languages.
Article-Level Search
Search 11M+ articles across all open access publications.
DOAJ Seal
Premium 'DOAJ Seal' identifies journals with best open access practices.
Free Public API
Open API and data dumps for librarians and researchers.
Subjects Covered
Media included
Document and content types you can find in DOAJ.
- Journal articles
- Preprints
TOP TOOL COMPARISONS
DOAJ Alternatives
| Tool | Coverage | Subjects Covered | Open Access / Pricing | Citation Features | One-line Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | 11,764,489 | Multidisciplinary | Yes · Yes | None (journal directory only) | The trusted directory for vetted peer-reviewed open access journals. Ideal for verifying journal legitimacy. |
 BASE | 400,000,000 | Multidisciplinary | Yes · Free | None (metadata search only) | One of the largest open-access search engines. Ideal for finding free full-text papers across repositories. |
 OpenAlex | 250,000,000 | Multidisciplinary | Yes · Free | Citation network with full API access | The open alternative to Scopus and Web of Science. Free, comprehensive, and great for analytics. |
 Google Scholar | 389,000,000 | Multidisciplinary | Yes · Free | Cited by counts, h-index, i10-index, related articles | Fastest free starting point for any topic. Great for discovery, weak for systematic literature searches. |
 Semantic Scholar | 200,000,000 | Multidisciplinary | Yes · Free | Influential citations, citation graph, TLDR context | Free AI-powered discovery tool. Excellent for finding influential papers and TLDR summaries. |
 arXiv | 2,597,322 | Physical Sciences, Computer Science | Yes · Free | References only (no native cited-by) | The preprint server of choice for physics, math, and CS. Where cutting-edge research appears first. |
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