jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:pThe ability to dope a semiconductor depends on whether the Fermi level can be moved into its valence or conduction bands, on an energy scale referred to the vacuum level. For oxides, there are various suitable jats:italicn</jats:italic>-type oxide semiconductors, but there is a marked absence of similarly suitable jats:italicp</jats:italic>-type oxides. This problem is of interest not only for thin-film transistors for displays, or solar cell electrodes, but also for back-end-of-line devices for the semiconductor industry. This has led to a wide-ranging search for jats:italicp</jats:italic>-type oxides using high-throughput calculations. We note that some proposed jats:italicp</jats:italic>-type metal oxides have cation jats:italics</jats:italic>-like lone pair states. The defect energies of some of these oxides were calculated in detail. The example SnTajats:sub2</jats:sub>Ojats:sub6</jats:sub> is of interest, but others have structures more closely based on perovskite structure and are found to have more jats:italicn</jats:italic>-type than jats:italicp</jats:italic>-type character.</jats:p> jats:pjats:boldGraphic abstract</jats:bold></jats:p>