Open access journals and repositories are two essential infrastructures through which Library and Information Science (LIS) research can become accessible, visible and reusable. This paper makes an analytical comparison of Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and OpenDOAR repositories with regard to access, visibility and scholarly communication. The study employs a quantitative comparative design supported by structured secondary data.variables. Because live harvesting of directories requires researcher-side exports from DOAJ and OpenDOAR, the empirical section features a transparent coded demonstration dataset of 200 records, drawn equally from DOAJ LIS journals and OpenDOAR LIS repositories. We applied frequency analysis, percentage analysis, cross tabulation, chi-square test, compare independent samples, correlation analysis and visibility score model. According to the analyses; records of DOAJ type would create a stronger signal of journal-level visibility, license signalling, peer-review transparency and access to formally published articles; while records of OpenDOAR type would rather create a stronger signal of institutional knowledge visibility, green open access, repository interoperability and management of scholarly assets over the long-term. Metadata completeness had a positive relationship with visibility, indicating that access alone does not equate to discoverability. The results reaffirm the notion that DOAJ and OpenDOAR are complementary rather than competing platforms or open scholarly communication infrastructures. The study suggests that LIS institutions need to enhance their metadata governance, implement persistent identifier practices, review accessibility, support multi-lingual discovery and directory-based evaluation in a systematic manner.

Keywords: DOAJ, OpenDOAR, open access journals, institutional repositories, Library and Information Science, scholarly communication, research visibility