For academic journal managers, being indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is an important step toward improving a journal’s international visibility and credibility. DOAJ is widely recognized as a directory of open-access journals that applies strict standards regarding editorial transparency, open-access policies, and good scholarly publishing practices.

However, before submitting an application to DOAJ, journal managers need to ensure that their journal meets the required criteria. One way to do this is by conducting a self-evaluation of the journal’s management and website.

This process helps editors identify whether the journal website clearly provides essential information such as the peer review policy, Creative Commons license, editorial board details, and publication ethics policy.

Through this self-evaluation, journal managers can determine which aspects still need improvement before submitting an application to DOAJ. This step is very important because many DOAJ applications are rejected due to a lack of transparency or incomplete information on the journal website.

Check Your Journal Readiness with the DOAJ Self-Evaluation Tool

To assist the initial evaluation process, you can use the following tool. This tool contains several questions related to the basic standards of open access journal management, adapted from author.my.id.

Answer each question based on the current condition of your journal. After completing the checklist, the system will display a readiness score that indicates whether your journal is ready to apply for DOAJ indexing.