# DOAJ Open Access Journals Scraper (`xtracto/doaj-journals`) Actor

Search the Directory of Open Access Journals: article processing charges by currency, fee waivers, licence terms, peer-review process, plagiarism screening, preservation and copyright retention. Keyless, no login.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/xtracto/doaj-journals.md
- **Developed by:** [Farhan Febrian Nauval](https://apify.com/xtracto) (community)
- **Categories:** Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 90.5% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.34 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## DOAJ Open Access Journals — Fees, Licences and Publishing Policies

Search the Directory of Open Access Journals for the things that decide where you publish or
whether you trust a publisher: **article processing charges in every currency quoted**, fee waivers,
licence terms with the Creative Commons flags broken out, peer-review process, plagiarism screening,
digital preservation, copyright retention and typical time to publication.

Keyless public register, no login, no proxy.

### Not another article index

The catalogue already reaches article metadata through Crossref and PubMed. This is the **journal
register** — publisher-level policy data that neither of those carries. Use it to find journals that
charge nothing, to compare APCs across currencies, or to audit a publisher's screening and
preservation practices.

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `searchQueries` | array | — | Subject, title or publisher — `medicine`, `machine learning`, `Elsevier` |
| `filters` | array | — | `no-apc`, `has-apc`, `has-waiver`, `cc-by`, `author-retains-copyright`, `plagiarism-screened`, `preserved` |
| `maxItemsPerQuery` | integer | `200` | DOAJ serves at most 1,000 per query |

Filters combine with each search term, and work on their own — leave `searchQueries` empty and ask
for every journal that charges nothing.

### Output

```jsonc
{
  "_input": "medicine",
  "_source": "S1-doaj-api",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-09-13T02:04:11Z",

  "doajId": "…", "title": "European Psychiatry",
  "doajUrl": "https://doaj.org/toc/…", "journalUrl": "…",
  "publisherName": "Cambridge University Press", "publisherCountry": "GB",
  "eissn": "…", "pissn": "…",
  "openAccessSince": 2007,
  "languages": ["EN"],
  "subjectTerms": ["Medicine"], "keywords": ["psychiatry", …],

  "hasApc": true,
  "apcPrices": [
    { "currency": "GBP", "price": 2320 },
    { "currency": "USD", "price": 3150 },
    { "currency": "EUR", "price": 2850 }
  ],
  "apcCurrencies": ["EUR", "GBP", "USD"],
  "apcUsd": 3150, "apcEur": 2850, "apcUrl": "…",
  "hasOtherCharges": false,
  "hasWaiver": true, "waiverUrl": "…",

  "licenceTypes": ["CC BY-NC"],
  "licences": [{ "type": "CC BY-NC", "BY": true, "NC": true, "ND": false, "SA": false, "url": "…" }],
  "allowsCommercialReuse": false,
  "authorRetainsCopyright": true,

  "reviewProcess": ["Double anonymous peer review"], "reviewUrl": "…",
  "plagiarismScreening": true,
  "hasPreservation": true, "hasDepositPolicy": false,
  "publicationTimeWeeks": 4,
  "pidScheme": ["DOI"],
  "aimsScopeUrl": "…", "authorInstructionsUrl": "…",

  "addedToDoaj": "…", "lastUpdated": "…"
}
```

### Three things worth knowing

**A journal can quote the same charge in several currencies, and 37 of 100 do.** *European
Psychiatry* lists 2,320 GBP, 3,150 USD and 2,850 EUR for one fee. Collapsing that into a single
`price` would pick one arbitrarily and silently mislead anyone comparing costs, so the full list
ships as `apcPrices` and the convenience fields name their currency: `apcUsd`, `apcEur`.

**Licences come with their Creative Commons flags already separated.** `BY`, `NC`, `ND` and `SA`
are booleans alongside the label, so "may I reuse this commercially?" is `allowsCommercialReuse`
rather than a string comparison against `"CC BY-NC"`.

**DOAJ stops at 1,000 records per query and tells you so.** `pageSize` is silently clamped to 100
— asking for 200 returns 100 with a 200 status — but the record ceiling is honest: page past it and
the body reads *"You cannot access results beyond 1000 records via this API."* It is a record limit,
not a page one, so `pageSize=10` with `page=100` hits the same wall. The actor treats that as a stop
condition, logs it, and keeps what it has. Narrow the search to reach the rest.

### Errors

| `_error` | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `invalid_query` | DOAJ rejected the query syntax |
| `no_results` | The search ran and matched no journals |
| `unexpected_shape` | A 200 without a `results` list, or a record with no title |
| `blocked` | DOAJ returned nothing usable |
| `network_error` | Never reached the server |

If every search fails, the run itself fails rather than reporting success over an empty dataset.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Subject, title or publisher — medicine, machine learning, Elsevier. Leave empty to search by filters alone.

## `filters` (type: `array`):

Combined with each search term. Use these instead of learning DOAJ's query syntax.

## `maxItemsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

DOAJ serves at most 1,000 records for any one query, so values above that will not be reached. 100 journals per request.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional and not needed. DOAJ is a keyless public register with no anti-bot layer.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "medicine"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerQuery": 200
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

Dataset items shown in the 'Journals' view.

## `items` (type: `string`):

Every record this run produced, with all fields, as JSON.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "medicine"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("xtracto/doaj-journals").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "searchQueries": ["medicine"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("xtracto/doaj-journals").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchQueries": [
    "medicine"
  ]
}' |
apify call xtracto/doaj-journals --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,xtracto/doaj-journals"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/aKiZoEMsxE5JaafME/builds/7eRChDfnDGb6rS5Y4/openapi.json