About

Metadata help

As soon as your journal is indexed in DOAJ, you can start uploading article metadata to us. From that we generate journal and article metadata that we make publicly and openly available via different methods:

Our metadata is collected and incorporated into commercial discovery systems, library discovery portals and search engines. Here are some of them:

  • OpenAlex
  • OCLC
  • EBSCO products
  • Clarivate's Proquest and Ex Libris products
  • Clarivate's Web of Science
  • SCOPUS
  • Google Scholar
  • Google
  • Dimensions
  • CONSER's MARC records

More details are available.

What happens to metadata after you upload it to DOAJ

As soon as you upload your metadata to us, we ingest it and discard the original XML or JSON files. We process the metadata to our own XML and JSON requirements. This metadata is then openly available across all of our endpoints. This process allows us to claim rights on the metadata, however we waive all rights under a CC0 waiver. The openness of our platform and the fact that we waive all rights means that anyone can collect the metadata and ingest it into their systems without any attribution to DOAJ. This includes AI-supported solutions, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. One thing that isn't affected by this process is any copyright assigned to the work the metadata describes.

Any questions about this process or what happens to metadata after you upload it to DOAJ, can be sent to our Help Desk.

Uploading article metadata

We are a trusted source and provider of metadata about open access journals and articles. When you upload your article metadata to us, it increases the chances of that content being visible in discovery systems globally.

You can upload article metadata to us in three ways.

API

  • Speed and efficiency: high
  • Level: difficult to set up, easy once a connection is made
  • Formats accepted: JSON
  • Maximum upload limit: 50MB
  • Requirements:
    • An API that will connect to ours
    • The API key from your DOAJ account
    • do not send us author email addresses
  • Help available? Yes, via one of our API groups; search for 'Google Group DOAJ API' in your browser.
  • Testing available: not currently available
  • Documentation Yes
  • FAQS Yes
  • OJS plugin available? Yes. Refer to PKP documentation.
  • OJS support: for help, refer to the OJS Technical Forum
  • Troubleshooting uploads: please submit a bug report (via GitHub) or contact us with the following details:
    • The time of the file upload. (If you saw the error more than 12 hours ago, please try the upload again before you contact us.)
    • Whether the error happened once or repeatedly
    • The exact error message that appeared during the upload. Include a screenshot.
    • The DOAJ account ID that you are logged in with. You will find this under 'Settings' in the Dashboard dropdown menu.
    • The file(s) you had problems with
    • The ISSN(s) of the journal

XML

  • Speed and efficiency: medium
  • Level: medium since XML files must be structured correctly
  • Formats accepted: DOAJ XML,Crossref 4.4.2 XML, Crossref 5.3.1 XML
  • Maximum upload limit: 50MB
  • Requirements:
    • A way to generate structured XML and validate it against the required XSD file.
    • The XSD files: DOAJ, Crossref 5.3.1, Crossref 4.4.2
    • do not send us author email addresses
  • Testing available: not currently available
  • Documentation DOAJ XML, Crossref 5.3.1 XML, Crossref 4.4.2 XML
  • FAQS No
  • OJS plugin available? Yes. Refer to PKP documentation.
  • OJS support: for help, refer to the OJS Technical Forum
  • Help available? Yes
  • Troubleshooting uploads: if our error message definitions don't help you, please submit a bug report (via GitHub) or contact us with the following details:
    • The time of the file upload. (If you saw the error more than 12 hours ago, please try the upload again before you contact us.)
    • Whether the error happened once or repeatedly
    • Whether you are uploading DOAJ or Crossref XML
    • Whether you are uploading a file or uploading from a link
    • The exact error message shown in the 'Notes' column of the History of uploads section, including the detail under the 'show error details' link.
    • A screenshot of the error message with the 'show error details' link expanded.
    • The DOAJ account ID that you are logged in with
    • The file(s) you had problems with

Enter article metadata manually

  • Speed and efficiency: low
  • Level: easy
  • Formats accepted: text, entered via our webform
  • Maximum upload limit: N/A
  • Requirements:
    • Plain text only
    • No HTML formatting, no author email addresses
    • The abstract metadata for the article: title, full-text URL, DOI (if applicable), author names, ORCiD (if applicable), affiliations, publication date, ISSN(s), Volume/Issue/Page (if applicable), abstract
  • Help available? Yes. Contact our Help Desk.
  • Testing available: not currently available
  • Documentation No
  • Troubleshooting: make sure you enter the Print ISSN and Electronic ISSN in the right ISSN field.

Correcting or updating article metadata

Sometimes, article metadata needs to be updated or corrected. When you upload new metadata, we use the Full Text URL and DOI (if present) to identify and match articles. This allows existing metadata to be overwritten and updated.

If you are updating article metadata with bibliographic details such as title, authors, affiliations, year, volume, issue, or page number, you can send us the updated metadata using one of the methods above. For a successful update, the metadata must include an identical identifier, such as Full Text URL or DOI.

If you need to update or correct either the Full Text URL or DOI for articles that already have either a Full Text URL or DOI in the DOAJ metadata, you must contact us first. We will need to delete the existing articles for you before you upload the new version. Submitting new Full Text URLs or DOIs will cause duplicate articles to be created. You may find this table helpful. It illustrates which uploads fail and which ones succeed.

To delete article metadata, please contact Help Desk with the following details:

  • journal title
  • ISSN(s)
  • years to be deleted (we can only delete whole years) or if we should delete all articles for a journal

We will first confirm with you the number of articles to be deleted. Deleting articles is instantaneous and cannot be reversed.

Help with metadata uploads

If article XML uploading fails, there might be a problem with the XML. An error message will be displayed at the top of the 'Upload article XML' page. Even more information is shown in the 'History of uploads' table at the bottom of the same page. (Click the 'Upload article XML' tab again to see the most recent messages in the table.)

My authors have multiple affiliations

We are currently unable to roll up multiple affiliations and attach them to one author. We are investigating how we can better support this. More information will be posted on our blog.

If an author has multiple affiliations, you must list the author once for each affiliation.

My article abstracts are in more than one language

Our XML format only supports one language for 'Article Title' and 'Abstract'. We are researching a solution that allows multiple languages to be uploaded to us and displayed.

Metadata containing multiple languages can still be uploaded to us. However, you cannot choose which language is displayed. Please only send us one language to avoid your articles being displayed in a mixture of languages.

I am seeing a 403 forbidden error

You may see the 403 forbidden error for different reasons. These apply to both the API and uploading XML.

  • ISSNs
    • You may be sending us an extra ISSN that we don’t have in your journal record.
    • You may be sending only one ISSN, but we have two in the journal record.
    • We may have the journal's ISSNs in an old version of your journal record.
    • You might have put the EISSN in the PISSN field and vice-versa.
  • Wrong account
    • You may be sending us an ISSN that belongs to a journal attached to a different account.
  • You are trying to update an article's Full Text URL (FTUs) or DOI
    • Two articles with the same FTU or DOI are not allowed.
    • Please contact us if you want to update the URLs or DOIs of your articles. We need to delete the old versions first.

I am seeing a timeout or a 'blocked' error

If you see a timeout error, please try splitting your upload into smaller files, even if your file is under our 50MB limit. Many may be uploading content to us, and the server is taking longer than usual to collect your file.

If you see a screen from Cloudflare that says you have been blocked, please contact us. Include a screenshot that shows the Ray ID at the very bottom of the page. We need this to troubleshoot the problem.

Downloading your metadata

You can download metadata about your journal by downloading our CSV.

You can download your article metadata by using our API or by using our public data dump service.

Using a spreadsheet to update your journal metadata

If you received a spreadsheet from us--a 'Journal Update File'--please complete it by the deadline sent to you. You will have received some instructions as well. Read them carefully as they will help you with your updates.

Before you return the spreadsheet to us, you must do two things:

  1. Convert it to a CSV using the 'Save as' function. If asked, save it in the Unicode UTF-8 format. Delete the Instructions tab first.
  2. Validate it.

Here are some tips to ensure that your CSV file will pass validation:

  • make sure the CSV is in UTF-8 format
  • don't change any ISSNs or journal Titles. To do this, contact Help Desk.
  • don't add a new journal to the file. To do this, submit a new application.
  • don't change the title of any columns
  • don't include anything in the column other than what is asked for in the instructions
  • make sure no spaces are accidentally added before or after the information in each cell

Deleting a journal (a row) from the spreadsheet means that no update will be applied to that journal. It will not remove the journal from your account or withdraw it from DOAJ. To do this, you must contact Help Desk.

Validating your CSV

To validate your CSV, go to the 'Validate your CSV' tab on your Publisher Dashboard. If you do not see the tab, contact Help Desk.

If the CSV validates correctly, you will see one of these two messages:

'File validated successfully.You can now send us the file.' 'File validated successfully but with warnings. Please check the warnings below and contact us with queries. If all looks good, please send us the file.'

If the CSV cannot be validated, one or several warnings will be displayed:

Warning Explanation
Column name has mismatching case to expected header During editing, the case used in the column name has been changed. This is just a warning and does not need to be corrected for us to process the CSV correctly.
Column name is not a valid column header. Please revert it to match what was sent to you in the original file. During editing, the column name has been changed. The name must match exactly the column name in the spreadsheet sent to you.
Column name is a required column missing from this upload. Please refer to the original file and restore the column. During editing, the column has been deleted. Please refer to the original spreadsheet and restore the column.
There is no journal record in DOAJ for ISSN(s) issns. The record may not exist, or it may be withdrawn. The ISSN doesn't match a journal in DOAJ. Check it against the spreadsheet sent to you. You cannot add ISSNs to journals. If you think an ISSN is missing, contact Help Desk.
Your account account ID doesn't own the journal with ISSN(s) {issns}. You may not update it. The journal may have transferred to another owner since you received your spreadsheet or you have accidentally changed the ISSN, which matches another journal in DOAJ. Refer to the spreadsheet sent to you and correct the ISSN.
The data you supplied didn't change anything in the journal record. You can ignore this message if you haven't updated anything for this journal.
You may not change question. Please revert it to match what was sent to you in the spreadsheet. During editing, the question has been changed. The question must be exactly as it is in the spreadsheet sent to you. Please change it.
We couldn't understand the information in question

From time to time, other validation errors might be seen if one of the cells contains completely incorrect information. For example, the cell should contain a URL but it contains text. These error messages should be easy to understand but contact the Help Desk if you have questions.

Version history

This is Version 3.2 of our Metadata help page.

Version 3.2 (November 2025 - updates to the CSV validation text)
Version 3.1 (October 2025 - small corrections and updates)
Version 3.0 (January 2025 - added a new section: 'Correcting or updating article metadata')
Version 2.0 (December 2023 - added the entire 'Using a spreadsheet to update your journal metadata' section)
Version 1.0 (November 2023 - created this whole page with new content)