On the open road to universal indexing
OpenAlex and Open Journal Systems
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21255767 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Diego Chavarro (0000-0001-9116-0891, Simon Fraser University), Juan Pablo Alperin (0000-0002-9344-7439, Simon Fraser University), John Willinsky (0000-0001-6192-8687, Stanford University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Pages | 1039-1058 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-26 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Quantitative Science Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2641-3337 • E-ISSN: 2641-3337 |
| Publisher | MIT Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1162/qss.a.17 |
| OpenAlex | W4413008886 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 50 |
This study examines OpenAlex’s indexing of Journals Using Open Journal Systems (JUOJS), reflecting two open-source software initiatives supporting inclusive scholarly participation. By analyzing a data set of 47,625 active JUOJS, we reveal that 71% of these journals have at least one article indexed in OpenAlex. Our findings underscore the central role of Crossref DOIs in achieving indexing, with 96% of the journals using Crossref DOIs included in OpenAlex. However, this technical dependency reflects broader structural inequities, as resource-limited journals, particularly those from low-income countries (47% of JUOJS) and non-English language journals (55–64% of JUOJS), remain underrepresented. Our work highlights the theoretical implications of scholarly infrastructure dependencies and their role in perpetuating systemic disparities in global knowledge visibility. We argue that even inclusive bibliographic databases like OpenAlex must actively address financial, infrastructural, and linguistic barriers to foster equitable indexing on a global scale. By conceptualizing the relationship between indexing mechanisms, persistent identifiers, and structural inequities, this study provides a critical lens for rethinking the dynamics of universal indexing and its realization in a global, multilingual scholarly ecosystem
Information retrieval · Search engine indexing · World Wide Web · Biomedical Text Mining and Ontologies · Computer Science · Publishing and Scholarly Communication · scientometrics and bibliometrics research
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |