The Open Access Journals Toolkit is a new resource developed collaboratively by the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) to guide existing and new open access journal publishers in a volatile global scholarly communication landscape. Articles (with references) cover issues of funding, setup, peer review and quality assurance, running a journal in a local or regional language, software and technical infrastructure, persistent identifiers, licensing, recruiting staff and building an editorial board, and much more. The Toolkit is organized into 6 searchable sections:
- Getting started
- Running a journal
- Indexing
- Staffing
- Policies
- Infrastructure.
Checklists, a definition of open access with a grid of different funding models, a glossary, an FAQ and an “About” section round out the Toolkit. It is openly licensed with Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 and can be downloaded and printed as a whole or as individual articles. Versions in English and French are currently available, with other languages forthcoming. The Toolkit is intentionally designed for accessibility and use by scholarly publishers working in different contexts and regions across the world. Because of its comprehensiveness, it serves those thinking about starting an OA journal, those considering how to better establish their journals, those who are concerned with their journal’s financial sustainability and those with challenges in specific areas. The Toolkit fills a much needed gap in the nuts and bolts of open access journal publishing.
