The DOAJ is the de facto premier “white list” for open access journals for academics. Many OA journals and publishers are vying hard to become DOAJ members or to be DOAJ-listed as one of their claims of being a legitimate academic journal or publisher.
However, a list of 2115 removed journals (current as of April 25, 2017) casts doubt on the quality and rigidity of the process in place by DOAJ to vet and screen journals before inclusion on DOAJ, or to continuously screen current members and listed journals for compliance with DOAJ stated qualities for inclusion.
Journals get removed at DOAJ for the following reasons (these are verbatim reasons listed at DOAJ:
https://doaj.org/faq#metadata
the journal is no longer Open Access;
the journal is inactive (has not published in the last calender [sic] year);
the journal has not published enough articles this calendar year;
the journal has ceased publishing;
the journal's web site URL no longer works;
evidence of Editorial misconduct;
the publisher failed to submit a new application within the given time period for reapplications;
the journal does not adhere to Best practice.
Best Practice seems to refer to this policy:
https://doaj.org/bestpractice
The criteria for inclusion at DOAJ are listed here, under “Publishers”:
https://doaj.org/publishers
If you discover any problematic journals on that list that violate any of these policies, please report them here using clear and objective criteria, and proof. Please also contact me by email and send your claim and proof of policy violation so that a formal complaint can be sent to DOAJ. This is an important service for the academic community, i.e., to be vigilant of those services, like DOAJ, that claim to represent the highest quality in the publishing industry.
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