e-journals

nuevo menu

Español

Evaluation of e-journals

Introduction

In every country, we are witnessing the growing presence of available full text scientific journals on the Internet. The movement behind the Open Access philosophy is becoming more important every day, by making open access to texts more frequent. Also, the scientific publishers of the more important journal generally offer the texts of their journals in e-format besides the printed version, be it as a supplement to the printed subscription or independently.

Latindex, taking into account the transformations that are taking place in the scientific community as well as its paradigms, and as an answer to the growing number of scientific and technical journals that have chosen electronic publishing, has defined some publishing quality criteria that already consider those defined for printed journals. These criteria are applicable to any journal notwithstanding their support, and they incorporate some other criteria specifically designed for e-journals. The criteria that have been proposed were elaborated by a work group that, in its experimental phase, applied them to 39 journals from four countries obtaining positive results.

If journals are always a reality undergoing continuous changes, the e-journals are even more so. The experience in applying the proposed criteria must be extended, always keeping in mind future readjustments according to what we learn from their application.

List of criteria

E-JOURNALS: Basic characteristics

1	Reference to the Publishing staff. The existence of a publishing board, editorial board or scientific authority must be mentioned. In the case of e-journals, the reference must be included directly in the first page or through a link that will allow the user to access the information by clicking on it.
2	Scientific content. In order to qualify, at least 40% of the documents published in the issues to be evaluated must consist of: a) original articles; b) technical articles; c) information stemming from congresses; d) letters to the editor or short articles; e) revision articles, state of the art, etc. In every case, the technical or scientific interest must prevail.
3	Steady generation of contents. Generation of new contents in a single year must be proved.
4	Author identification. The works must be signed by the authors with name and family name or institutional authorship must be declared.
5	Publishing entity. The entity or publishing institution of the journal must appear in a visible place. It must be totally dependable. It must be included directly in the first page or through a link that will allow the user to access the information by clicking on it. The email address must also be included.
6	Reference to the director. The journal must include the name of the director of the publication, its editorial authority or its equivalent.
7	Reference to the journal‘s URL. It must appear in the main page of the journal.
8	Reference to the journal‘s address. The mailing address or the e-mail address of the journal‘s management must appear in a visible spot, for subscriptions, exchanges, works submission and other purposes.

E-JOURNALS: Characteristics of presentation of the journal

9	Navigation and functionality. The journal must have a navigation structure that will allow access to summaries and articles through a maximum of three clicks.
10	Reference to frequency of publication. Or in its case, a declaration of continued frequency of publication.
11	Access to contents. It must facilitate the presence of the summary or that of an access structure regarding the contents.
12	Access to content history. For all the time that the journal has been published, or for at least the past three years.
13	Bibliographic heading at the beginning of the article. The journal qualifies if the bibliographic heading appears at the beginning of each article and identifies the source.
14	Members of the editorial board. The journal qualifies if the names of the members of its editorial board are included.
15	Institutional affiliation of the members of the editorial board. The journal qualifies if the names of the institutions to which the members of the editorial board are affiliated, are given. It is not enough to only include the name of the country.
16	Authors‘ affiliation. The body to which the author is affiliated must always be included.
17	Reception and acceptance of originals. The journal qualifies only if both dates are indicated.

E-JOURNALS: Characteristics of management and publishing policy

18	ISSN. E-journals must have their own ISSN.
19	Definition of the journal. The journal must include a reference to its objective, subjects covered and/or the public it is aimed to.
20	Peer Review system. The journal must include the selection procedure regarding the articles it publishes.
21	External evaluators. It must be mentioned if the journal‘s arbitration system resorts to external evaluators belonging to other bodies or institutions.
22	External authors. At least 50% of the works published must be written by authors not belonging to the publishing body. In the case of journals published by associations, authors will be considered as belonging to the publishing body if they are members of the directing body of the association or if they appear in the journal‘s staff.
23	Editorial openness. At least two thirds of the editorial board must not belong to the publishing body.
24	Abstracting & Indexing services. The journal qualifies if it is included in any abstracting & indexing service. This field qualifies both if the database is mentioned by the journal itself or if it is added by the qualifier.
25	Frequency compliance. The journal qualifies if it complies with the frequency declaration set forth in criterion No. 10.

E-JOURNALS: Characteristics of content

26	Original content. The journal qualifies if at least 40% of the articles are original research, scientific communication or creation works.
27	Instructions for the authors. The journal qualifies if instructions for the authors regarding the submission of original material or summaries are included in at least one issue per year.
28	Elaboration of bibliographic references. The guidelines for the elaboration of bibliographic references must be indicated in the instructions for the authors.
29	Requirements regarding originality. The journal qualifies if this condition regarding works submitted for publication is mentioned in the presentation of the journal or in its instructions for the authors.
30	Abstract. An abstract in the original language of the work must be attached to every article.
31	Abstract in two languages. The journal qualifies if abstracts in the original language of the work and in a second language are included.
32	Keywords. The journal qualifies if keywords or their equivalent are included in the original language of the work.
33	Keywords in two languages. In order to qualify, the journal must include keywords or their equivalent in the original language of the work and in a second language.
34	Metatags. The journal qualifies if metatags appear in the presentation page of the journal source code.
35	Browser. The journal qualifies if it includes a search site that allows searches by words, indexes, the use of boolean operators, etc.
36	Added value services. The journal qualifies if it offers alerts, hypertext links, forums, link guides, etc...