Comparison

Elsevier vs Doaj

Elsevier lands on Depends, and Doaj lands on Worth it.

Elsevier

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Worth using if your institution's library pays and your field's top journals are Elsevier.

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Doaj

Worth it

Confidence: Medium

Free, community-funded index that is the de facto whitelist for legitimate open-access journals . researchers, librarians and funders should use it.

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Elsevier versus Doaj
Compare	Elsevier	Doaj
Verdict	Depends	Worth it
Best for	University libraries with big budgets	Researchers vetting open-access journals
Who it's not for	Unfunded authors paying APCs personally	Buyers wanting a purchasable SaaS tool with support SLAs
Privacy	No public CVEs found, but third-party reports flag a domain hijack and leaked credentials.^⁶	No public vulnerabilities found for DOAJ itself; a 2025 XSS CVE affects a third-party WordPress export plugin, not.¹⁶
Support quality	Trustpilot 1.8, 'Poor'	No support quality evidence in sources
Public sentiment	Acadics vent about fees, unpaid reviewing, and clunky tools; Trustpilot sits at 1.8 'Poor'.^¹	Researchers and librarians treat DOAJ as the free go-to whitelist for legitimate open-access journals, while some debate whether it carries the same weight as Scopus.¹³
Biggest gotcha	APCs are set per journal; check the exact fee before submitting anything^⁴	Fake journals claim DOAJ indexing; always verify on itself, not the journal's site¹¹

Pick Elsevier when

University libraries with big budgets
Researchers targeting top-tier journals
Clinicians needing decision support
Institutions with read-publish agreements

When Elsevier is not a fit

Unfunded authors paying APCs personally
Reviewers expecting payment
Open-access-only labs
Small teams wanting a cheap literature tool

Pick Doaj when

Researchers vetting open-access journals
Librarians curating trusted OA collections
Funders checking OA compliance
OA publishers building credibility

When Doaj is not a fit

Buyers wanting a purchasable SaaS tool with support SLAs
Authors needing impact factors or citation metrics
Committees requiring Scopus/Web of Science prestige
Journals wanting quick, guaranteed indexing

Sources

Trustpilot reviews of elsevier.comtrustpilot.com
review
Why do we hate Elsevier so much? (Reddit)reddit.com
review
Elsevier proofing system complaints (Reddit)reddit.com
review
Journal pricing policyelsevier.com
official
Open access agreementselsevier.com
official
Elsevier LAPSUS$ domain hijack (CloudSkope)cloudskope.com
security
Elsevier stealer-log credentials (Hudson Rock)hudsonrock.com
security
ClinicalKey AI expansion (DrFirst blog)iprescribe.com
news
DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journalsdoaj.org
official
DOAJ Application Guide for OJS Journals - PKP Docsdocs.pkp.sfu.ca
official
Some journals say they are indexed in DOAJ but they are notblog.doaj.org
official
DOAJ supporter modelsdoaj.org
official
A Review of the Directory of Open Access Journalsdcdm.doody.com
review
Are Scopus and DOAJ indexed journals credible . Reddit r/academiareddit.com
review
DOAJ, a real whitelist?researchgate.net
review
CVE-2025-58256 Detailnvd.nist.gov
security