Blog | Boston Library Consortium

Boston Library Consortium Joins the Movement to Support the Directory of Open Access Journals

Written by Boston Library Consortium | Aug 21, 2023 8:54:00 PM

A new agreement has been announced today between the Boston Library Consortium (BLC) and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

This partnership will provide an avenue for BLC’s coalition of libraries in the northeastern United States to support DOAJ’s work to curate and index nearly 20,000 peer-reviewed open access journals from around the world. As part of the agreement, seven additional BLC member institutions have pledged support alongside five long-time DOAJ supporters in BLC’s network.

“Investing in the sustainability of community-driven initiatives is a high priority for BLC’s member institutions,” said Charlie Barlow, BLC’s Executive Director. “We’re very pleased to contribute to the critical work of DOAJ to increase the usage and visibility of open access journals.”

“We are delighted to announce this new partnership with BLC, a consortium which actively engages with its Library Directors on matters of strategic importance like critical open infrastructure,” says Joanna Ball, DOAJ Managing Director. “As the momentum for Open Access grows in the US in the wake of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy ‘Nelson memo,’ we are seeing a growing number of consortia and libraries prioritizing support for DOAJ as a source of trusted open access journals.”

About BLC
Boston Library Consortium empowers a coalition of libraries in the northeastern United States to share knowledge, infrastructure, and resources at scale. 

Founded in 1970, BLC’s strength lies in its diverse membership network of public and private universities, liberal arts colleges, state libraries, public libraries, and special libraries united by a commitment to champion innovation through collaboration. For more information, visit blc.org.  
 
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 the community of library and other academic disciplines to assist in curating open access journals. This independent database contains nearly 20,000 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. 

Contact:
BLC - Charlie Barlow, Executive Director - cbarlow@blc.org 
DOAJ - Joanna Ball, Managing Director - joanna@doaj.org