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SciELO Brazil Criteria: criteria, policy and procedures for admission and permanence of scientific journals in the SciELO Brazil collection

November 2000 Version

 

1 Introduction

This document describes the evaluation criteria adopted by the SciELO Project (http://www.scielo.org) for admission and permanence of scientific journals in the SciELO Brazil (http://www.scielo.br) electronic collection.

These criteria, as well as the policy and procedures for governing their application, were discussed in the Seminar on the Evaluation and Selection Criteria for Scientific Journals, held in April 1999 at FAPESP, São Paulo, and later approved by FAPESP (http://www.fapesp.br) and BIREME (http://www.bireme.br). They are referred hereinafter as SciELO Brazil Criteria since they have a close relationship to the Brazilian scientific publication both concerning their definition and application.

As the SciELO Project expands through Latin American countries, it is expected that such criteria will be progressively improved and generalized emerging to establish common criteria for admission and permanence of scientific journals in national and / or regional SciELO collections.

     

2 SciELO Brazil Criteria Objectives

SciELO Brazil Criteria are defined in the context of the SciELO Project, which is coordinated by FAPESP and BIREME. The general goal of the SciELO Project is to contribute to the development of the national scientific research by improving and expanding its means of dissemination, publication, and evaluation through the intensive use of electronic publishing.

In the short term, the SciELO Project intends to radically increase the national and international visibility, accessibility and credibility of the Latin American and Caribbean scientific publication, through the integrated publishing of national and regional collections of scientific journals on the Internet. In the long term, the project envisions to increase the impact of the national scientific literature.

In order to accomplish the SciELO Project objectives, it is essential the improvement of every aspect of the scientific communication in the country, seeking to identify, stimulate, and develop a core collection of scientific journals, in which the quality standards match international leading scientific journal standards. Therefore, the evaluation criteria for journals, as well as the policies and procedures for their application are a fundamental line of action for the SciELO Project.

Aiming at contributing to the creation and development of the SciELO Brazil core collection of scientific journals, the specific goals of the SciELO Brazil Criteria include:

  1. providing data for the evaluation of national scientific journals in order to determine their admission to the SciELO Brazil collection;
  2. monitoring the performance of the scientific journals included in the SciELO Brazil collection in order to determine their permanence in this collection;
  3. producing performance indicators for the SciELO Brazil collection as a whole, and for each of its individual journals.

The SciELO Brazil Criteria contents and application will follow the SciELO Project dynamics and, specially, the process of creating and developing the SciELO Brazil core collection.

 

3 SciELO Brazil Consultancy Committee

Based on the SciELO Brazil Criteria, the Consultancy Committee will propose:

  1. the inclusion of new scientific journal titles in the SciELO collection;
  2. the exclusion of scientific journal titles from the SciELO collection;
  3. changes in the evaluation criteria of scientific journals for admission to and permanence in the SciELO Brazil collection;
  4. performance indicators for the journals belonging to the SciELO Brazil collection to be published regularly;
  5. the definition and enhancement of the Committee's operation, this way enabling the efficient fulfilment of the above goals.

The Committee will be composed by representatives of the national scientific communication community, according to the following permanent configuration:

  1. SciELO Project Technical Coordinator, who will be in charge of the Committee as its President;
  2. ABEC Representative (Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors);
  3. FAPESP Program for Scientific Publications Representative;
  4. CNPq/FINEP Program for Scientific Publications Representative;
  5. Three Scientific Editors, representing each one the following wide areas: Life Sciences; Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences; and Social Sciences and Humanities. The editor representatives will be elected annually among the editors whose scientific journals belong to the SciELO Brazil collection, after the second working year of the SciELO Brazil Consultancy Committee - during the first year the scientific editors will be indicated by SciELO;
  6. CAPES Representative.

The Committee might invite consultants and specialists to join its meetings and activities, when needed.

 

4 SciELO Brazil Collection Scope

The SciELO Brazil collection includes scientific journals which predominantly publish the results of original scientific research, and other original works, which contribute significantly to knowledge in the area covered by the journal. Journals must carry out a peer review process for analysis and approval of submitted contributions.

Individual journal issues published by SciELO Brazil should start from 1997, or from its first issue in the case of journals founded after that year. Journal articles and other works can be published in the English, Portuguese or Spanish languages.

Journals published by the SciELO collection need not necessarily publish a printed version.

 

5 SciELO Brazil Criteria for journals admission

     

5.1 Criteria for automatic admission in the period 1999-2001

The SciELO Brazil Criteria for admission of new journals will take into consideration previous evaluations. Previous evaluations may have been conducted by governmental and scientific institutions, like FAPESP and CNPq/FINEP, as well as a number of selected international indexes and databases.

A journal title will be automatically qualified for admission if it is indexed or abstracted in one of the selected indexes or databases mentioned below, or if it has reached a high performance in the FAPESP, and the CNPq/FINEP evaluation processes.

       

5.1.1 Journals included in international indexes and databases

Brazilian journals which are indexed or abstracted by one of the following international indexes and databases are automatically qualified for initial admission into the SciELO Brazil collection:

- ISI
- MEDLINE / Index Medicus
- PsycInfo (APA)

The Consultancy Committee has sole responsibility for any changes in this list of sources.

The permanence in the SciELO Brazil collection of the journals included in such sources will be determined by performance indicators as stated in item 6.

 

5.1.2 Selected journals by the FAPESP Criteria

Brazilian journals submitted to the FAPESP evaluation process in 1997 are automatically qualified for initial admission to the SciELO Brazil collection, provided that they had been classified in the "priority" category with reference to editorial contents, as well as had rated "very good" or "good" categories with reference to editorial presentation.

The permanence in the SciELO Brazil collection of the journals included in such sources will be determined by performance indicators as stated in item 6.

         

5.1.3 Selected journals by the CNPq/FINEP Criteria

Brazilian journals submitted to the CNPq/FINEP evaluation process in 1997 are automatically qualified for initial admission to the SciELO Brazil collection, provided that they had been classified in the "A Group" by the Program for Scientific Publications.

The permanence in the SciELO Brazil collection of the journals included in such sources will be determined by performance indicators as stated in item 6.

 

5.2 Evaluation criteria for journals admission to the SciELO collection

When a journal title is not automatically qualified for admission to the SciELO Brazil collection, it will be evaluated accordingly to the following indicators:

       

5.2.1 Scientific content

Journals must predominantly publish the results of original scientific research, and other original works, which contribute significantly to knowledge in the area covered by the journal. When needed, the SciELO Consultancy Committee will request the judgement of peers to confirm the predominance of original contributions.

         

5.2.2 Peer review

Evaluation and approval of submitted contributions must be performed by peers. The journal editor should expressly specify the peer review process it applies for the approval of contributions. Once a journal is admitted to the SciELO collection the peer review process should be documented. The indication of the main dates of the process, including receipt and acceptance dates of a contribution will be mandatory.

         

5.2.3 Editorial board

The constitution of a journal's editorial board must be public. Its members should be renowned specialists from the country and abroad. Journal will not be admitted if the editorial board members are all from a specific institution, and which most of the articles come from a particular institution or geographical region, will not be admitted.

 

5.2.4 Frequency

Frequency is an indicator which depends on the journal subject area. Frequency indicates the scientific literature flow of a specific area covered by a journal. It is also an indicator related to the communication opportunity and speed.

According to broad subject areas, the following table points out the minimum and the desirable frequency, as well as the minimum and the desirable number of articles per year a journal is expected to present:

Area

Frequency

Number of articles per year

minimum

desirable

minimum

desirable

Life Sciences quarterly quarterly

32

60

Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences three times a year quarterly

18

40

Social Sciences and Humanities biannual three times a year

10

24

 

5.2.5 Lifetime

To be considered for evaluation, a journal must have published at least four issues.

         

5.2.6 Timeliness of publication

A journal must be publishing on time according to its stated frequency.

 

5.2.7 Article titles, abstracts, and keywords in English

Journal articles must provide English translations of titles, abstracts, and keywords, in the case English is not the original language of the article.

 

5.2.8 Standardization

The journal must specify which standards it follows for editorial presentation of periodicals and articles, as well as for document presentation, including bibliographical references, etc. SciELO will note whether or not the journal follows stated standards.

 

5.3 Admission process report

Admission of a journal to the SciELO collection must be carried out only after a favourable report by the SciELO Consultancy Committee. When needed, the Committee will request the judgement of peers to support its decisions. The Committee's report may include recommendations for journal improvements and changes, which should be followed within the period stated by the same report.

SciELO National Unit will contribute to the Committee's work providing all needed information and documentation.

 

6 Performance evaluation criteria for journals permanence in the SciELO collection

All indicators applied in the admission process of journal titles to the SciELO Brazil collection will also be applied to evaluate their permanence in the collection. Fulfillment of the Committee's recommendations for journal improvements should be considered as an additional indicator of the journal’s permanence in the collection.

The following indicators are associated with a journal performance within SciELO collection, and will be used to justify its permanence in such a collection:

     

6.1 Timeliness of electronic file delivering to SciELO Unit

Timeliness of files containing journal articles and other works of delivery is measured by an issue's file arrival at the SciELO Unit. File delivering should rigorously follow the stated frequency of a journal. SciELO Unit will report any delay in file delivering.

Journals that appear chronically late will be evaluated by the SciELO Consultancy Committee, and will be subject to exclusion from the SciELO collection.

       

6.2 Journal usage

Journal usage is measured monthly by the number of times it is accessed, or viewed online. When a journal usage is consistently low and / or tends to decrease when compared to other journals of the same discipline, its permanence in the collection will be evaluated by the SciELO Consultancy Committee. The Committee will then suggest a study to find out the reasons and feasible solutions for such a poor usage, or recommend the journal [for] exclusion from the SciELO collection.

       

6.3 Impact factor

The frequency with which a journal has been cited in a certain year is based on citation analysis. The impact factor of a specific journal will be considered in relation to the impact factor of other journals within similar fields.

Increases of the impact factor or the maintenance of the same average of related journals will be considered a productive performance, which assures the permanence of a journal in the SciELO collection.

 

7 Exclusion process report

Exclusion of a journal from the SciELO collection will be carried out only after a decision has been reported by the SciELO Consultancy Committee.

     

8 Judgement appeals

Journal editors have the right to appeal against judgements of the SciELO Consultancy Committee, in relation to both admission and exclusion processes. Appeals will be analysed by the Committee, which may evaluate a journal once more. The Committee's report will be sent to the editor.

     

9 Readmission process

Excluded journals from the SciELO collection can be readmitted, provided that they fulfil all admission and permanence criteria of SciELO Brazil. Readmissions will be analysed by the SciELO Consultancy Committee.

Readmission of a journal will not be carried out immediately after it has been excluded from the SciELO collection. A journal will be re-evaluated only if it is able to fulfil all criteria for at least four consecutive issues or one year.


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